The goblins struck right where it mattered, fighting back the wolves and leaving a bit of an opening for the humans to battle against Charlatan and the Fireball wolf. Grotho eagerly rushed forward to fight, taking on a dire wolf with his club while leading most of the goblins. Looks of respect were aimed at him from the other goblins who sought to follow his example. Kuraura, on the other hand, slunk to the side, his eyes staring Charlatan down from a distance. His orders were to support the humans specifically, and his own dislike of Charlatan allowed him to readily take this order.
Frankly, Kuraura was jealous of Charlatan due to the extensive upgrades Dylan had given him in preparation for the humans. When naming them, Dylan had instilled certain instincts and intents into them, which would shape their growth. Grotho had been given power; Dylan’s will when naming Grotho allowed Grotho’s physical capabilities and aggressive temperament to grow. He could already be considered a muscle-head at this point. Kuraura had been created with cunning and intelligence in mind, but this granted him higher intelligence than the average goblin which allowed him to see the preferential treatment Charlatan got with his naming and additional upgrades.
Since Charlatan had been created with the purpose of being a scapegoat, Dylan had spared no expense to make him stronger than the average monsters within his dungeon, then after his naming, he had become a guardian. The interesting thing was that guardians had no limits to their growth, and could be continuously boosted by the Dungeon, though they did not count as evolutions. In fact, they seemed to stop evolving at that point and only changed whenever the Dungeon decreed it.
After finding that out with his first naming, he had already been upgrading Kuraura and Grotho past their original capabilities, resulting in their current forms. Charlatan had been hastily evolved from a normal goblin into a chitin-faced, furry-armed monster which was dubbed the Beast Goblin, and was listed as a (E-) rank monster. Charlatan had been further upgraded with fire glands, skills, and other capabilities, so compared to a regular Beast Goblin, he was two ranks higher at (C-) rank.
And that’s why Kuraura, who was lingering at the (D+) rank, leapt from his hiding spot, slamming his fist into Charlatan’s fire-spewing face. Losing his balance, Charlatan fell to the ground, his tongue centipede wriggling about in confusion. Ignoring the burns on his hand from the impact, Kuraura continued to whale on Charlatan while Ali and Weld slowly recovered.
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Both of them weren’t in the best shape; Weld’s face was mildly burned and some of his hair was burned off, but he remained relatively unharmed due to his high resistances. Ali, on the other hand, groaned and stumbled about confusedly in a dase. The burns on his face were severe, and his arms were badly burnt as well. As the thief of the group, Ali had little in the ways of defense, and he hadn’t been expecting Charlatan’s earth magic or his tongue centipede. He stumbled about a bit more before screaming out.
“Ramey! Hel-!” Right before he finished, a dire wolf lunged and crunched down into his shoulder, teeth piercing right through his light leather armor under the strength of its jaws. Ali used [Shimmer Step] hurriedly, and he disappeared and reappeared in a glimmer of light and sound randomly, some chunks of flesh from his shoulder tearing out as he decisively activated the skill. Groaning, one of his hands clutched his shoulder while the other covered his face. The flesh that was visible was a burnt, raw mess, one eye was clearly blinded, while the other was covered by his hand.
“Ramey! Please!” His hoarse voice cried out. The healer turned and began chanting, yet the fireball wolf seemed to take notice and pounced towards her, knocking her to the ground. Before she was mauled, Allen stabbed into its neck, causing the wolf to roar in pain as it slammed him to the side. The wolf was also dying, and it stumbled and began to slump down. Ramey rolled from underneath it while Luna blasted another wolf which had tried to ambush them. She began chanting while looking for Ali, but then realized she couldn’t find him. In the short distraction, Ali had already been taken away by the wolves. Her face blanched with dread as she realized this.
“Guys! I-I think Ali got taken away!” Ramey’s eyes watered up with tears as the rest of the adventurers also stiffened after hearing her claim. If Ali had indeed been taken during this chaotic battle, he was as good as dead. All of them sought to take action immediately after hearing this. Allen’s swings against the fireball wolf became harder and more aggressive, and the beast which had barely held on with Dylan’s concentration began to collapse. Its body sunk to the ground as its flesh began to fall off of its body like wet clay. Its eyes released one last glimmer of hate as its body lit up in flames and melted away. The wolves were also being slaughtered by the goblins, insects, and the adventurers following their rage.
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Charlatan also needed to ‘die’ for the sake of Dylan’s plan. Under the combined attack of Kuraura, Grotho, and the tired adventurers, Charlatan collapsed. All of the wolves he had led were gone, and he was the only one left. Angrily, Allen stepped forward, sword looking to kill, when Kuraura stopped him.
“Let us deal with the problem, human. This wolf man has caused us pain. My master wants revenge.” If they could get rid of the humans now and preserve Charlatan, they wouldn’t have to go through the hassle of summoning him back later.
“Stupid goblin!” Allen’s face twisted with anger as he glared at Kuraura. “This damned guy killed my teammate! If I don’t finish him and avenge Ali, I’m not qualified to be the leader of this group!”
Kuraura’s face also twisted in anger, then his ears twitched as he received an order. After listening, he finally replied. “Fine, you get rid of him, but you leave my lord’s dungeon immediately after, or don’t blame us for being aggressive!” Following those words, the surrounding monsters began to shift as their gazes locked onto the adventurer group.
Weld, Ramey and Luna looked around uncomfortable while Allen angrily glared at the goblin. Ramey then looked towards Allen with a tired gaze and told Allen: “We just need to get proof Allen, and bring it back. We can’t afford to fight these monsters too.”
Hearing Ramey’s words, Allen’s face loosened a bit, and he turned to Kuraura. “We will take the head of this wolf-man and the ears of some of these wolves. In addition, we want Ali’s…Our friend’s body. Give us time to find it.”
Kuraura shook his head. “The wolves which took your friend left with his body. My lord says he was dead before he was taken away. Now!” Kuraura pointed at Charlatan who lay on the ground. “Kill him, take his head and go.”
As Kuraura turned away, his teeth clenched as Charlatan issued guttural growls in the goblin tongue. “I know this is necessary, brother. I am glad to give my all for the lord! Thank you for letting me take this position for the lord, and thank you, brother, for trying to protect me in the end! Don’t worry, I can come back with the power of our lord to serve him again.”
Even on his deathbed, Charlatan was grateful to the highest extent to die for Dylan. This loyalty was engraved from when he had been chosen from a normal goblin and evolved into a powerful creature to this extent. Although Kuraura was jealous towards Charlatan’s upgrades, Charlatan’s willingness to sacrifice himself for their lord softened his opinions towards him to some extent, and Kuraura snorted unhappily.
Following their small exchange, which went unnoticed due to Kuraura’s lack of response, Allen finished Charlatan off with a slash to the throat, then lopped off his head. The adventuring group left after collecting the ears and tails of some of the wolves as proof, then they immediately left the dungeon.
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After confirming that the adventurers had left by tailing them with a goblin, Dylan let out a sigh of relief. His passive skill activated, absorbing some of the wolf bodies which were left laying around. He went to work on the second floor after ordering the goblins to feast on the wolf corpses. His mana was really starting to fill up like crazy over the past few wars, and he seemed to hit the maximum amount of mana he could hold quite often, so he had just been pouring mana into the second floor for the duration of the adventurer fight against the Charlatan. He was luckily able to preserve some of the wolves from the fight with the humans, and some of the goblins could hopefully evolve after eating the wolf corpses. Feeling a mental tug on the back of his mind, Dylan focused his vision on two dire wolves which had the human Ali’s corpse in their jaws. It had already been confirmed that he couldn’t summon humans after acquiring Maynard and the others, so he had just been focusing on their skills and chose the candidate he wanted the most.
Simply put, Ali’s skills, especially his movement skill, interested Dylan, and he went through the effort of killing Ali just to get it. In Dylan’s opinion, the skill was worth it.
[Shimmer Step](New): A skill created by Arche which allows the user’s body to slip towards a target area within a certain range around them. This skill produces a shimmering light and a burst of sound with its activation. This skill is taxing on the body, requiring exceptional stamina for repeated use. The power, speed, and range of this skill is dependent on the power of the skills user.
Dylan had also gained an assortment of other skills such as [Great Stamina], [Throwing Proficiency] (D+), [Bloodhound’s Nose], [Minor Spatial Awareness], and a few other notable skills from Ali’s death. However, here came the big prize.
Humans produce so much mana when they’re alive…I wonder how much mana I can get by absorbing the corpse of one! Dylan excitedly thought to himself as he hurriedly poured out all of his mana into the second floor, lowering him to 0 mana. Absorbing the body of Ali, Dylan excitedly opened the status window to look at the amount of mana he had received.
Huh?! I only got 20 mana from his corpse?! Isn’t this too low?! This is the amount I can get from an (F) ranked monster which was ready to evolve! You’ve got to be kidding meeee!!!!??!