The corpse was extremely short, pus, wart covered and dark green. There were bits of bone and pinkish-red goo where the head was supposed to be and off to the side, was a crude, multifaceted wooden club.

Mikhael inspected the corpse and said something to the team, his voice grave.

“A goblin.” Hyphis translated, “That’s where the smell was coming from.”

Yaaro felt an ounce of pity for the poor creature. Looking at how brutally the small thing had been killed, it was hard not to feel anything.

“Are they strong?” Yaaro asked.

“By themselves not at all, but as a group they can be a formidable threat.” Claire answered.

The group decided to proceed forward, and Yaaro looked at the pitiful creature one last time. A cocktail of emotions stirred in his heart, weighing down his heart.

Its small, frail arms and legs. Its pot belly.

“Could you tell me more about goblins?” He asked Hyphis, who readily obliged.

“There is not much to say.” She said with her ever present smile, “They exist in large groups all throughout the forests and plains of Iyropa and often raid villages and traveling processions. I have heard people say they might possess a rudimentary form of intelligence, but I don’t agree. How can an animal such as that be intelligent?”

Her voice was as soothing as ever.

But her words, especially her last few, left Yaaro deeply unsettled. Even if he had been transported to a fantasy world, he still had the ethics of someone from 21st century Earth.

The picture of the crude wooden club flashed in his mind. It was multifaceted. Clearly, it had been shaved and whittled down to that shape.

How can an animal such as that be intelligent?

For the first time since coming to this world, he was deeply unsettled. As ethereally beautiful as Hyphis was, she— and most likely others— had similar beliefs.

He didn’t feel like talking to Hyphis after that.

The team continued forward. There was another goblin corpse. This time its head was preserved, but it was cleanly separated from its body. It had a rounded head with a pig-like nose and comically large ears and in the grip of its hands was a small dagger.

But what unsettled Yaaro the most were its glassed over, human-like eyes.

The team proceeded.

And there was another corpse. And then another.

Now they were passing by a corpse every second.

And then there were more corpses.

The rotting stench was unbearable. It was hard to describe in words such an assault on a single sense. All the rotting smells combined into one burning foul sensation that made everyone present wince.

They even walked in silence, afraid to open their mouths and accidentally taste that horrible stench. Now, there were corpses everywhere they walked. It was less a battlefield and more a massacre.

Every inch of the ground was covered in puddles of blood, and their wet footsteps echoed through the cavern. A palpable tension uncomfortably stuck to them like extremely humid air. Mikahel said something with a grave face, which Claire translated,

“Something’s wrong.”

Mikhael muttered something else.

“He just remembered that the dungeon rules say that the floor is supposed to reset after everyone leaves.”

Immediately the atmosphere in the cavern became chilly.

With nothing but their thoughts, and the sound of their wet footsteps to accompany them, the silence was unbearable.

“But the team before us…”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“They left. We all saw them leave.” Claire said.

It was true. 5 people— a complete team— had stepped out of the teleporter before they entered. It was a protocol that was followed under strict supervision. Simply put, there was no way that there was someone left behind.

“We didn’t see them enter, so maybe they had an extra person.” Yaaro said.

“The administrators do not allow a team of more than 5 to enter the teleporter. So that is not possible.” Hyphis replied, no longer smiling.

Regardless of what was happening, they walked.

An uncomfortable gnawing in his gut screamed at Yaaro to leave, but his teammates had more experience living in this world and facing its dangers than him. So he trusted their call.

If they thought it was okay to proceed, it most likely was.

And then the cavern opened up.

Opposing them was a towering cliff face that fell into a bottomless abyss and in front of them was an extremely long stone bridge that seemed to float without support. Thankfully, it had parapets and guards, so nobody could fall.

There was a sigh of relief from Mikhael as he pointed at the alcove at the end of the bridge.

“The exit.” Claire said.

And immediately, a weight lifted from all of their shoulders. They were tensed for nothing.

“Let’s go.” Claire said.

Their footsteps echoed across the chasm.Leaning his head over the parapets and staring into the black abyss sent his head spinning. Aurore whispered something to Claire, her expression crestfallen. In the dim light of the cavern, she looked as if all life had been sapped from her.

“Aurore says something is seriously wrong. We should proceed very carefully.” Claire translated.

Aurore’s expression was ashen. Her delicate brows were creased with worry and her breath was unsteady.

“Don’t worry.” Yaaro pat Aurore’s shoulder, “The exit is right there, we’re almost th—”

BOOM

Something hit the ground in front of them like thunder and blew a shockwave of dust their way. The dust settled and they could see what it was.

With the exception of Yaaro, everyone’s face paled.

Nowhere in their studies did they recognise the creature in front of them.

It was an inhumanely skinny thing that resembled an old man. Its head was wrinkled like a raisin and every part of its wrinkled body was as thin as a stick. It stood in a horse stance, resting its hands on its legs. It wore nothing to cover its stick-like, wrinkled torso and below its waist, it wore a decorative black and red loincloth.

It looked up and stared at them with its pitch black eyes.

It raised one leg.

And stomped.

The shockwave almost threw them off their feet.

Then it raised another leg.

And stomped. The resulting shockwave was stronger, and Aurore fell to the ground.

“THE FUCK ARE YOU GUYS LOOKING AT!” Someone spat, “KILL THAT BASTARD!”

Yaaro’s voice snapped everyone out of their daze and they immediately pulled out their weapons, assuming a defensive formation. A ring of fire sparked from the air and circled around them.

Against an unknown enemy, the worst option was to blindly attack. With the exception of Yaaro, such strategies had been drilled into everyone’s mind.

But against their bulwark defense, it simply stretched its arms out like a wrestler in the crouching position and wore an ear-reaching grin.

SNAP

Suddenly, the three in front slammed into Yaaro and Hyphis. Everyone fell to the floor. Yaaro scrambled to stand up. Immediately he looked at it. But in front of him was a fading red wall. It was flat and luminous. And it fizzled away into a shower of sparks.

It grinned.

SNAP

A flash of red. And his nose was flattened. His body was crushed as if hit by a moving car. All the air was knocked out of him. With the world on its side, he labored to breathe. He faintly heard the sounds of rustling as his team hurried to stand up.

But for a fraction of a second he saw what it did. And despaired.

All it did was simply punch with its palms open. A simple punch. And all four of them had been knocked onto the ground.

If it wanted, it could have finished them off right at that instant. But it didn’t. It simply stood in the same spot with that mocking grin.

Was this the end?

Before he could even finish that thought, a raging fire burned in him. Fury pumped through his blood into every cell in his body. Die like this? In a smelly cave with not even a grave to remember him? Before he got home?

He stood up coughing. And stared into the deep black eyes of that thing with fire in his eyes. But the Chairman’s words rang in his ear

Hide your power

So he simply took a step back and allowed his team to stand up and take guard.

Aurore raised a thick wall of ice and Hyphis stomped on the ground, causing a directed shockwave in the earth directed at the hideous thing. The shockwave traveled under the wall of ice and immediately, dozens of sharp rock shot out at the thing at extremely high speeds.

But with the flick of its outstretched palm, all the shards simply simply dropped, as if slamming into an invisible wall.

The thing threw its head back in an ugly, screeching laugh.

It then calmly stood up tall and walked, looking for a moment like a surreal stick figure with an indistinct face, but from closer, as it pressed its unnaturally gaunt, bark-like face to the ice wall, its black eyes madly spun in their sockets and slowly stopped, revealing a pair of familiar, human-like eyes.

And then it spoke—

Like nails scratching on a chalkboard.

“Yaaro Ilay—”

“Come out.”