Return of the Woodcutter

Before long, Aito's team arrived at a dead end. Fresh red, as well as green blood, covered the ground. Broken arrows, daggers, swords, and a few body parts were scattered around. 

Those were Meilin's teammate's remains. In dire need of TP, they had thought of braving the tunnels. However, they only got lost in them for hours. It appeared that the tunnels actually spanned over kilometers, maybe over the whole floor. 

The normal entrance wasn't located near the mountain. In fact, there were many entrances throughout the forest that seem to be caves or small holes. Aito and the siblings had passed by a few of them on their way to the mountain. 

The possibility of goblins using those to navigate safely underground then exit to ambush challengers on the surface was high. 

If they hadn't taken the hidden entrance, Aito's team would have probably been lost in the myriads of tunnels like Meilin's team. Well, they also had Gwen's blurry memories. 

"This…," Meilin said, "Lucas… Juliette… Xu Chi… Ursula… I'm so sorry." 

"Where is the passage you talked about?" Aito asked, despite Meilin losing her composure. He knew it wasn't sensible of him to do that. However, time was of the essence. "Meilin?" 

Ogoro didn't seem to agree with how Aito handled things, but didn't intervene. He seemed to understand Aito's thought process. 

"I, I…," she hesitated, then took a deep breath to calm down. Having endured a trial before coming here, plus spending two months in this Tower, she was bound to be mentally stronger than when she had been living on Earth. And so, she forced herself to reply, "I, I, I don't know. It was supposed to be right here." 

At those words, Aito and the siblings immediately started to poke at the surrounding walls, searching for illusions, only to find nothing. 

"It looks like bodies were dragged towards this wall," Sheyla said, pointing at trails of blood leading to the dead end. "It's probably an illusion, like the rock that blocked the hidden entrance." 

Aito examined the blood trail, followed it to the wall. Touching it, he realized the consistency matched the previous realistic illusion he had encountered. It felt smooth, yet rough. 

Unwilling to reveal his Fearless Aura, for now, he pondered on how to break the illusion. 

'This illusionary wall is magic, right? Supposedly, all magic uses aura to operate. Taking that into account…' 

Just in case, Aito warned the two siblings to get ready for a fight, switched to his hammer, and "gently knocked" like a polite guest. 

The illusionary wall disappeared, revealing the road ahead. A totem built of human bones standing on the side appeared to indicate it was the right way. 

Aito signaled for the others to advance. The siblings followed. Meilin… had no choice but to do the same. 

A trail of blood continued down the tunnel. They found a tattered human ear on their way, however, there were strangely no goblins. 

"Stay on your guard." 

As they threaded carefully towards the unknown, the stench of goblin feces got stronger. The smell reached its peak when they entered a large underground area, light by the fake moonlight that entered through holes large enough for a goblin to pass through, but not humans. 

It was populated by at least six hundred goblins. 

'There are so many of them. Is that their nest?' 

And that was just at night. If they had come during the morning, there might have been thousands of goblins in here. Well, before they would all ambush challengers on the surface. 

There, on the other side, on a rock, stood a 1,80 meters golden goblin with a staff it appeared to be using as a cane. It shouted something in a dialect unknown to the challengers and also the system. 

"Arg, rak, grush aaaasf, bub u blaaa!." 

Aito halted the march, signaling for his team to retreat silently while the goblins were busy. Hidden in the tunnel, they started planning their attacks according to what they had seen. 

"There are hundreds of them in there. Rushing in headfirst would be risky." Ogoro said, staring at Aito. 

"Can't we use those boom balls Ainar gave you?" Sheyla asked. 

"I'd prefer saving the boom balls for later." Aito said, "Unless necessary, I won't use them." 

"Isn't that a situation that requires an explosion?" Sheyla said, as if stating the obvious. 

"W, w, wait… do you really intend to face this goblin army? This is suicide." Meilin asked. However, she was ignored. 

Aito looked to the side at a random goblin's poop, then got an idea, "Sheyla, Ogoro, do you think you'll be able to buy me some time?" 

Both siblings understood what Aito meant. It could be risky, but in those narrow tunnels it would certainly be less risky than taking on a huge army in a wide space like they had in the Square. 

Before they could give Aito an answer, goblin roars echoed throughout the tunnels. Multiple angry strides resounded, announcing the coming of the horde. 

'Fuck, how did they know we were here?' Aito thought, before remembering the goblins that had escaped previously. There was a high chance that they had reported the presence of humans. 

If that were the case, then those green pests were preparing to hunt them down, drown them under their overwhelming numbers. 

Aito grabbed some goblin poop next to him, then rapidly covered himself with it. "Distract them as long as you can. Before you're overwhelmed, flee using the marks we left on our way here. If necessary, use this." 

Sheyla grabbed the boom ball full of shit, then cleaned it, "What about you?" 

"I'll join you at the entrance of the fifth floor by tomorrow evening." 

With the goblins they would kill in a bit, clearing the fourth floor's quest was but a matter of time. 

Aito's plan seemed like suicide, but both siblings trusted him. Ogoro and Sheyla knew they could get out more or less safely. With their current agility stat, outrunning goblins was easy enough. The road back had been cleared of illusionary walls and ambushes so it should be safe. 

They nodded, exited the hiding place, then waited for the goblins to come. 

"A, a, and me?" Meilin asked. 

"Do whatever you want," Aito said, extinguishing his magic torch to enter a dark corner. 

The Asian girl seemed to curse internally before following the siblings. Staying with him in the nest appeared to be the worst option of all. Pure suicide. 

From his hiding place, watching the siblings fight the goblin army while slowly retreating, Aito endured the goblin feces' stench that helped him mask his own human smell. 

According to the informations he had gathered, goblins had keen senses, their sense of smell was better than humans. To prevent him from being spotted, he had covered himself in shit. 

Uncomfortable, yes, but necessary. His nostrils had been toughened thanks to Jack's feces, anyway. 

As he was hiding in a corner, attracted by the loud fighting, numerous goblins passed by him while he restrained his breathing, just in case. 

One minute. 

Two minutes. 

Three minutes. 

He exhaled silently, then inhaled. Being in complete darkness, he could only rely on his hearing to locate potential threats. 

Sounds of small child-like steps getting further and further from him indicated the main tunnel would soon be cleared. 

Once certain he was safe, Aito light his torch then headed inside the nest unhindered, only to find that six hundred goblins were still in there. 

'The fuck?' Aito cursed internally, thinking that something was definitely fishy. 

Too late to back out now, he grabbed a flash ball, then threw it at the center of the nest. Just as he lifted his shield to protect his eyes, a bright light flashed with such intensity that it could blind those who saw it for a few seconds. 

Goblins' eyes who were used to this dark environment couldn't handle the brightness. The goblins covered their eyes like they were on fire. 

The flash ball was more effective and powerful than Aito had thought. 

As he lowered his shield, he immediately noticed the scam. Less than a sixth of the goblins in the nest were real ones. The others that were merely standing still appeared to be illusions. 

"That'll make things easier." 

Swapping for his ainium shield, he charged into the crowd, dissipating every illusionary goblin that collided with ainium, creating small shock waves that were strong enough to shove the real goblins aside. 

He didn't even need to kill them to pave a way to his target. 

The golden goblin stared at him with an angry face, shouting what seemed to be orders or just a bunch of nonsense. 

"Gla, gla, glurg, blaaaaaa!" 

Almost two-third of the way to his target, Aito started to get attacked by goblins that have been stimulated by their leader's gibberish. 

He swapped to his two-handed ax, covered it with Durability before obliterating the green pest with ease, purposely leaving his armor uncoated to save as much aura as possible. His enemies' attacks could barely put a scratch on Ainar's work, anyway. 

The golden goblin saw his subordinates die one after the other as his illusions disappeared. It roared, calling for more goblins to attack the trespasser. 

Appearing to know it wouldn't be enough, it launched fireballs in succession at its enemy, only for Aito to swat them away with hammer strikes. 

When Aito got close enough, it seemed to resign itself that it couldn't defeat the human and surrounded itself with realistic illusionary walls. 

Aito activated Fearless Aura, blinding the goblins around him, creating an opening and disintegrating the goblin shaman's illusion. 

The golden creature barely had time to shout "blaaaa!" that an ax severed its head.