Chapter 35: I want to go to the second floor (7)

Chapter 35: I want to go to
the second floor (7)

Joy
Hog’s party is a four-member group of adventurers who primarily
operate on the 7th floor of the labyrinth.

As
a 7th floor party, they have come down to the 5th floor and entered
the Hobgoblin Village for one reason.

This
time, the party has a very specific request to get the staff of the
shaman Hobgoblin who came before them.

The
fifth floor of the Labyrinth is special in more ways than one.

5.
10. 15. 20. 25. 30.

The
floors where fountains exist, which are multiples of 5, are known for
their unique environments and peculiar challenges compared to other
floors.

‘Some
are absurdly difficult, others are yawn-inducingly easy.’

The
fifth floor they were standing on was the former.

It
was bizarrely spacious and chaotically arranged, with the five types
of monsters living together in a village-like structure.

It’s
much larger and more complicated than the other floors, making it
harder to capture.

That’s
why the reward for completing the task was higher than the reward for
slaying the 7th floor monsters.

Since
it’s not easy for even a 7th-floor explorer to go through the five
monster villages on the 5th floor one by one the right way, everyone
cheats.

‘If
it wasn’t for the fountain scroll, I wouldn’t have taken the job in
the first place.’

It’s
not really a trick. It was the norm on the 5^th
floor.

They
tore up the fountain travel scroll and traveled to the fountain at
the end of the floor.

Seven
reformed explorers were drinking from the Fountain of Healing, yet no
major trouble ensued.

Joy
Hog’s party finally made it to their destination, Hobgoblin Village.

The
party consisted of leader and dwarven tank Joy Hog.

Catgirl
priest Hitolis.

Harpy
wizard Lammel Royce.

Bovine
Girl warrior Jubeel.

And
behind them was Gregor, the third level warrior Lizardgirl, who had
joined the party as a porter.

Turning
to Gregor, Jubeel said.

“Watch
closely. I’ll show you how amazing our party is.”

“Kerrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!”

The
shaman Hobgoblin, who had found them, shouted loudly, then the entire
goblin village began to shudder.

The
hobgoblins in the caves on the third and second floors headed to the
storerooms at the end of each floor to gather their weapons.

The
hobgoblins on the first floor immediately joined the battle.

“If
we stall, the armed hobgoblins from upstairs will come! We need to
end this quickly before it gets complicated!”

Dwarven
warrior Joy Hog shouted, and harpy wizard Lammel Royce nodded and
raised her wand.

“I’ll
do my duty, protect her!”

Her
mouth twitched as she began to chant. Heat gathered at the tip of the
wand.

The
shaman hobgoblin didn’t stand still. The light that burst from her
staff spread throughout the goblin village.

And
the hobgoblins turned even more fierce and vicious.

A
sizable number of hobgoblins, perhaps dozens at a guess, lunged at
them with no fear of death.

-BANG!

However,
their opponents were also skilled explorers.

“I
can do this, it’s only a little harder than the goblin lair on the
first floor!”

Tough.
The first floor? It’s a child’s playground compared to the fifth
floor. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked.

“I’ve
never done the Hobgoblin Village before, but it’s easier than I
thought! I shouldn’t have used the scroll to skip it back in the
day!”

Bullshit.
It was really good to use the scroll back then. If I came when I was
weaker than I am now, I would have died. I’m going to keep skipping
the fifth floor.

Joy
Hog and warrior Jubeel bluffed with each other and swung their swords
and blunt instruments relentlessly in defense of the priest and the
wizard.

The
priest provided them with buffs and heals, and the wizard’s spell was
gradually coming to an end.

“Move
out of the way, Fireball!”

The
wizard’s wand glowed and a huge ball of flame fell over the
hobgoblins’ heads.

The
smell of burning meat and smoke cleared and all that could be seen
was the panicked face of the shaman hobgoblin.

“You
cub. Look at you panicking.”

“Don’t
underestimate the power of a seventh-level wizard.”

“Yeah,
yeah.”

There
wasn’t much the shaman hobgoblin could do, having lost all her
warriors.

The
beast began to scurry away, and Jubeel, the bovine girl swordsman,
disposed of it with a swing of her sword and grabbed her staff.

“That
was easy?”

“I
mean, it was a lot easier than I thought. Were the hobgoblins always
this weak?”

Still,
it was better than I thought it would be, considering how much I’d
been freaking out.

I’m
not kidding, I’m serious. There were fewer hobgoblins than I
expected.

“I
don’t know about the other floors, but I heard that the hobgoblins on
the fifth floor are so fucking numerous because they fuck all day
long⋯”

Just
as they were recounting the battle, which ended more refreshingly
than they expected.

Kaang!
Kaang!

“⋯What
was that?”

A
familiar sound of battle came from somewhere.

“Kerrrrrrr!
Kerrrrrrr!”

“Kekekekekek!”

And
the cries of the hobgoblins, many of them, screaming at the same
time.

A
question mark hovered over the heads of the Joy Hog party.

Something
was wrong. Surely they had taken care of the shaman hobgoblin, so
where were the cries coming from?

“Miss
Jubeel. There-“

Gregor,
looking alarmed, pointed somewhere.

Everyone
in the Joy Hog party turned to look where Gregor’s finger was
pointing.

“Crazy.”

The
same word came out of everyone’s mouths.

“Kekekekek!!!”

“Die,
die, you fucking bastards!!!”

They’d
forgotten for a moment in their triumph.

In
retrospect, it didn’t make sense that the goblin village had no
troops.

Why
the shaman hobgoblin had panicked, why the hobgoblins on the second
and third floors hadn’t come down after the battle.

-Uh-oh!

On
the third floor of the Goblin Village the battle was still raging.

***

A
fist flies toward my right face.

I
ducked my head to the left to avoid it.

Then,
a dull pain shot through my left cheek. The hobgoblin had punched me.

At
the same time, I felt bites on my side, elbow, and leg.

The
damn hobgoblins were clinging to my limbs except for my arms and
biting at my body, sapping my health.

If
I dodge one, I get hit by two or more. There were so many of them, I
had no choice.

-Tsk,
tsk, tsk!

I
swung my battle axe and decapitated one of the hobgoblins.

Red
blood spurted, blinding me for a moment.

I
wiped the blood from my eyes and my vision turned red.

The
green hobgoblin looked brownish in the red blood.

“You
shitty bastards⋯”

They’d
found me hiding and their lust had gotten the better of them.

So
they seemed to be fighting to capture me alive as much as possible.
That’s when I reduced the hobgoblins’ numbers the most.

‘Ten?
Twenty?’

I
don’t remember exactly, but I must have swung my axe at least thirty
times with all my might and sent a dozen of them into the Jordan
River.

But
at some point, their mood changed. They started swinging their fists
and weapons like they were going to kill.

The
good news is that the armory is small.

It’s
hard to swing a spear or sword freely, and with dozens of hobgoblins
crammed into that small space, there’s no room to swing a fist
properly.

Hobgoblins
couldn’t even think of wielding swords or spears.

Those
with hammers or axes, which were less constrained, were quickly
killed.

It
would be difficult to find a blunt weapon again in the midst of all
this mayhem, scavenging through corpses and blood-soaked floors.

The
hobgoblins clung to my breastplate and legs, clawing and biting at my
joints.

I
grit my teeth and endured.

-Tsk!
Tsk!

I
raised my right arm high, whacking the hobgoblins in the head with my
axe like I was whacking moles.

-Tsk!

A
tremendous pain shot up from my quadriceps and the outside of my
thigh felt hollow.

It
feels like lava is flowing from my thigh.

My
head felt hot and my heart was beating wildly.

I
didn’t even have to look down to know what they were doing to me.

This
crazy hobgoblin had bitten down on my left thigh with nothing but its
teeth.

My
left foot twitched like a rat and the sensation gradually faded away.

I
immediately lost my balance and fell to the blood-soaked ground,
where the goblins pounced on me in a mass attack.

I
crouched as low as I could. With my shaky left hand, I swiped the
vial of restorative potion from my waistband and tipped it into my
mouth.

Fuck.
Good thing I’d taken it out of my backpack right before the battle.

Will
it work? I don’t know. I’m sure it’ll do for now.

I
immediately stood up, straining my right leg.

“Ugh!”

Fuck.
Hold on. Stand up like you didn’t feel the pain.

As
I rose, the hobgoblins that’d been crushing me like a sandwich fell
apart.

I
axed each of them in turn as they fell off my back and onto the
floor.

“Whoa,
whoa.”

This
is fucking hard but I have no time to spare. In fact, just holding
and swinging the axe is all I can do now.

My
vision gradually flickers. It’s like a lightning bolt. My breathing
is getting hotter.

My
head goes from hot with pain to cold in an instant, and my heart
beats wildly.

‘Ah,
here we go.’

I
haven’t felt this excitement in a long time.

I’m
at the crossroads of life, and one wrong move will lead to death.

[◆
Blessing of Fierce Battle]

–
You have reached the crossroads of death. Adverse conditions are met.

–
Stamina +2, Strength +2, Agility +2

Every
movement of my body feels faster and stronger at once.

My
breathing returns a bit but nothing dramatic. There are still many
enemies.

I’ve
invested my leveling free points into my stats, but the battle is
still unfavorable.

‘So
what?’

What
I have to do is clear.

Just
swing the axe. Swing, swing, swing, slice through the enemy.

That’s
what I must do now, and that’s the only way to survive.

I
swing the axe in a trance.

“Kerrrrrr!”

“Ke,
Ke, Ke! Kerrrrrr!”

As
I continued to slaughter, I gradually realized that I was swinging
the axe wide.

As
I began to gain distance, I could finally see my surroundings.

“Ker-“

“Ke,
ker-“

I
still couldn’t make out the creature’s expression, but I knew
instinctively that it was one of terror.

The
hobgoblins were freaking out and backing away from me.

For
a moment, I looked at the ground. I was standing over hobgoblin
corpses and there were at least fifty of them on the floor.

My
gaiters were soaked with blood, and the hobgoblin’s blood was up to
my shins, forming a river of blood.

My
feet crackled with every movement.

My
axe and hand stuck together. They didn’t slip in the blood, but
became one.

I
walked across the blood-soaked ground, swinging the axe as an insane
pain shot up my left foot.

I
was breathing hard and weak, as if I would collapse at any moment,
but I neither faltered nor flinched.

I
couldn’t let them off the hook. If there was the slightest opening,
they would pounce again, screaming.

“Keruk!
Kekekekekekekek!”

Despite
overwhelming numbers, those who couldn’t even handle a single prey
began to flee in terror, one after another, out of the warehouse.

Kaaaah!

One
by one, the hobgoblins began to escape from the warehouse, only to be
met with fireballs and burned to death. It happened in a flash,
followed by the sound of swords being swung.

‘Explorers.’

In
my trance I forgot about the explorers that came for the shaman
hobgoblin. They didn’t seem to be outlaws, but I should have been
prepared. I should have been.

“Ahhhhhh.”

My
body didn’t move an inch. It didn’t collapse or fall, but stood tall
and stiff.

My
eyes slowly closed and I don’t even have the strength to lift a
finger.

An
explorer is caught in my perception. I should respond, but…it’s a
strange, familiar feeling.

***
***

“What
the hell?”

Arriving
at the warehouse on the third floor of the Hobgoblin Village, Joy
Hog’s party stared in disbelief at the horrifying scene.

There
was blood everywhere. The walls, floors, and everything else was red.

Only
the ceiling looked like brown drawing paper with red paint splattered
on it.

They
could only guess that the room had once been brown.

The
floor was littered with blood-soaked hobgoblin corpses. It was
difficult to estimate their number from a single glance.

‘This
battle wasn’t easy for nothing.’

All
the hobgoblins from the third floor had gathered here.

The
hobgoblins on the second floor had also noticed the commotion
upstairs and rushed over,

‘What
if a force of this magnitude has joined forces with the Shaman
Hobgoblin?’

The
party would have suffered catastrophic damage.

‘No,
would we have survived in the first place?’

They
swallowed hard as they imagined the battle that would have taken
place in this small space, even for a party of seven.

The
results of the bloodshed were right in front of them.

A
man stood in the bloody space, trampling over the corpse of a
hobgoblin.

His
helmet, breastplate, and axe were covered in blood and his body was
no different.

His
limbs were dripping with blood, covered in wounds, including goblin
nails and tooth marks.

They
couldn’t tell if it was the goblins or the man’s blood but even if
they couldn’t tell, Joy Hog Party and Gregor recognized the man in
the helmet at a glance.

“⋯Are
you the staff of the Cozy Winter’s Night Inn?”

They
were regulars at Diana’s Inn.