Return of the Woodcutter

Aito followed Zeut through the tunnels, looking back from time to time at the naked captives. The goblin clearly knew where it was going, as if it had a mental map in its tiny brain. 

On their way, they saw fresh traces of a fight. Aito recognized the bolts spread around here and there. Goblins or humans, no corpses were seen. 

With Ogoro and Sheyla's capabilities, there were bound to be green bodies on the ground. This only confirmed Aito's suspicion of the bodies disappearing overnight. Where did those go? He had no idea. 

'I hope they are fine,' he thought, thinking about his teammates. He cared little about Meilin, but having developed some sort of relationship with the siblings, it was normal for him to worry about them. 

"Zmellz ztinky human blood and piss," Zeut commented. "Careful, Brigthnez, zome goblinz zaid humanz fought hard in tunnelz lazt moon. They were chazed to ztinky zurface zo we won't zee 'em in Brightnez'z territory. But zince we going to zurface—" 

"Just lead the way Zeut," Aito interrupted, annoyed by the goblin's lengthy gibberish. Well, at least now he knew the siblings were alive. 

"Ez, ez, Brithnez! We almozt there." 

They made a right turn and reached a dead end. Aito looked around, searching for an exit, and frowned when he saw none. 

"What's the meaning of this?" Aito said with an impatient tone. 

"Don't angry, Brigthnez. Itz nearest way out. We need dig exit. Goblinz dig every ztinky morning." 

The goblin explained that basically before morning came, every entrance they had made were plugged magically by what they called a devious spirit that Aito translated as the Tower itself. 

Apart from the few natural entrances, goblins would ambush the challengers by digging holes early in the morning. That way, it was less predictable to know where the exits were, resulting in a higher chance of success with their ambushes.

Aito didn't know whether those things were smart, or the gods purposely left this knowledge in their tiny green heads. 

Zeut started to smell the earth, touched it. Digging underground was a tricky endeavor, one wrong move and everything could collapse. That's why proper knowledge was required. In that sense, it was impressive to see the goblin looking for where to dig by pure instinct and with such poise. 

At some point, it found a good spot and started to dig with its little hands, using its dirty nails and dagger to stab the earth, digging at a pace faster than Aito thought goblins were capable of. 

This sight worried him. Why? Because if one goblin was capable of digging that fast, then what about hundreds or thousands of them together? 

He suddenly felt an urge to get out of the tunnels for fear of getting stuck in his own trap. 

To help it, he wanted to put some of the challengers to work. They refused to help one of the things that had captured them. The man Aito had punished even stared back at him with a hateful gaze.

He tried to reassure them with a few whispers that everything would be alright, but he was bad at it. Also, after his previous display of violence and the way he could order goblins around, their trust in him had dwindled. 

Some were even thinking that he wanted to bury them alive. They had probably followed him until now because they figured it was safer the further they were from the nest. 

He thought about threatening to kill them, but then doubted that it would work without a prior display first—meaning killing one of them.

However, although he found them annoying, he had no desire to kill challengers unnecessarily, even more when he was actually trying to save them. 

On the other hand, he could certainly kill the goblin to show he was on their side, but ultimately decided it was a bad idea. As long as he didn't know for sure digging here was the exit, he won't dispose of Zeut and he could also use the extra manpower, correction, goblinpower. 

Moreover, taking the same path as before would take too long and the marks Aito's team had left behind were now untraceable, so there was a risk he could get lost.

Even though the hidden entrance was located atop a mountain, they could also be flooded in no time. The goblins that were normally digging entrances at this hour to fetch food and offerings for their leader upon the challengers' arrival on the surface were enlarging his treasury. 

Of course, a few natural entrances existed, so the water wouldn't necessarily flood the tunnel going up the mountain. That was an unknown variable though. He didn't know the size of the water source he had spotted thanks to the magic water bottle, nor did he know how it'd react when it would be let loose. 

What's more, now that he took a closer look at them with his magic torch, the challengers looked tired. They were also wounded. Walking here while carrying bags might have taken every ounce of energy they got. 

Having made his decision, Aito sighed, quickly absorbed a mana core to replenish the mana Fearless Aura was eating up. He still had some time before running out of soul force, so it should be fine to just draw energy from mana cores for now.

He then took out his pickax and started enlarging Zeut's hole, quickly pushing the earth aside to make space. 

A bright light shone on Zeut's front head as it reached the surface. Apparently, they weren't that deep underground. The hole it had dug was angled upward, crawling in it was more akin to climbing. 

Zeut moved back a few meters, nimbly grabbing rocks to avoid slipping, and looked horrified to see its shiny leader digging.

For it, the leader shouldn't do such lowly manual labor. 

Aito ordered the goblin to shut up and help him move the residual earth aside. A pile of earth was built this way. 

After a few minutes, Aito and the goblin were done with the enlargement of the hole. Aito tested the entrance, crawling in to see if it would fit a human. 

It wasn't perfect, but at least it was large enough to fit his size. As for his backpack, he had just hidden it near the entrance on the surface.

He crawled back from his spot to deal with the challengers, only to find a dead Zeut and freed challengers armed with the weapons he had stored inside a few inventory bags they had carried. 

It appeared they had rummaged through all the bags and used the weapons to free themselves. 

Well, it didn't matter much to him since all the items that were truly useful to him were in his backpack. 

Most of them even had the time to put on some clothes Aito had been kind enough to prepare for them once they were outside. 

'Shit… I was too focused on digging I almost forgot about them.'

A blonde man with a long sword covered in dark green blood seemed to be leading them. The same man Aito had punished. 

Standing by his side were three other challengers. A blonde woman, an Asian man, and a brunette teenage girl. All armed.

'How annoying,' Aito thought. 

"You will pay for what you did to me," the blonde man pointed his swords towards Aito. 

"I only did what I had to do to keep you all alive." Aito replied, "If you had followed my instructions, nothing of that would have happened." 

The blonde man seemed to hesitate. After all, Aito had kept his promise. He could see the way out from where he stood and no goblins around to ambush them. 

"Calm down, Lucas," the blonde woman said. "Although he looks untrustworthy, it's true that he had helped us escape." 

'Lucas? Where did I hear that name before?' Aito thought, remembering Meilin's sorrows. 'Ah… don't tell me these three are Meilin's teammates. I thought the goblins killed them.'

"No matter how I look at him, this man looks suspicious, Juliette." Lucas said, "Didn't you see how the goblins were following his orders? How do we know he's not the golden goblin clad in armor?" 

Aito rolled his eyes under his visor. At least the challenger didn't attack him right away. 

"I killed the golden goblin."

"Ahahaha! You? Alone?" Lucas said, laughing. "Lier! A challenger can't do this alone! Even if that were true, how come the goblins listened to you!?" 

Aito sighed, losing patience. Nonetheless, he tried to stay calm and showed the golden ring, "It allows me to control the goblins. Without it, it would be impossible." 

While it wasn't entirely true, it made for a quick explanation. Since they might not have much time before the tunnels would be flooded, explaining the whole story would take too long—nor did he want to do it.

The blonde man's eyes light up with greed as he stared at the ring. If what Aito said was true, it could sell for a lot of TPs on the second floor. Also, it could be used to order goblins around, which was advantageous in numerous ways to make money. 

"This is… I saw the same ring around the golden goblin's finger!" The teenager girl said. "He, he, he might just be the golden goblin in disguise. Just look at him shining!" 

"Ursula might be right," the Asian man said, "we all know the goblin leader is capable of summoning illusions."

Aito cursed himself internally, he might have just made the situation worse for him. Well... their thinking was unfounded too. 

Sensing trouble, he prepared himself mentally to fight. 

"So, you were this disgusting creature all along!" Lucas exclaimed, his eyes clearly shining with apparent greed as he found a stupid reason to attack his savior.