Chapter 89: Let’s Set Fire to the Garden

The garden district could be considered a dense forest.

Plants taller than a person were growing, and it was a place that looked like an expanded botanical garden. This is the garden district.

And here live the masters of the garden called dungeon trolls.

They’re not as numerous as high orcs or hop goblins.

And they don’t go out hunting humans as aggressively as werewolves, but they’re certainly dangerous creatures.

“As you all probably know already. Dungeon trolls like human meat very. Very very much.”

Moreover, they’re serious about keeping humans as livestock.

They don’t simply kill and eat raw the humans they hunt on the spot, but keep them alive and slowly ‘cook’ them.

“This is why dungeon trolls are particularly vicious compared to other native species.”

They either boil them in a pot.

Or hang them upside down to drain their blood, then make blood sausage with the drained blood and raw meat with the remaining flesh.

They are monsters that consume humans in the most horrific ways.

Unlike other brutal and aggressive native species, dungeon trolls could be described as insidious and unpleasant creatures.

“Don’t get caught. The ones hiding in the forest will target you intensively.”

“…”

The nine adventurers who decided to follow us nodded with determined expressions.

If you go missing in the garden district, it’s impossible to search for you. No one knows how you’ll die after being dragged to a dungeon troll’s kitchen.

“And according to the information I gathered in advance, there’s a high possibility that dungeon trolls have three types of variants.”

Everyone listened attentively to Sion’s words.

The subspecies of dungeon trolls recorded in the Monster Dissection Manual.

“There are Stalkers, Trappers, and Chefs.”

Troll Stalkers are variants specialized in tracking and kidnapping humans, as the name suggests.

“They’re recorded to have pitch-black skin.”

“What’s their main method of attack?”

“They mainly cooperate with Trappers.”

Troll Trappers are ones that dig traps to hunt humans. These guys mainly use the plants in the garden district to pressure adventurers in various ways, such as using paralytic poison or scattering sleep powder.

“It seems the Trappers drive humans, then the Stalkers kidnap them and deliver them to the Chefs.”

“Are the Chefs the leader individuals?”

“Yes. They’re said to have the ability to process humans… and domesticate them.”

“Domesticate?”

“Troll Chefs can apparently manufacture drugs that interfere with human minds, feed them to humans, and make them like drug addicts. And if you’re dragged away, you’re forced to mate while addicted to the drugs.”

“Fuck… that’s disgusting.”

“Those fucking bastards.”

The adventurers retched at Sion’s explanation.

It was understandable. Unlike hop goblins which are only male, dungeon trolls are only female.

Yes, in short, if you’re dragged away, you’ll be used as a dildo to satisfy the dungeon trolls’ sexual desires.

“First, you guys. Form groups of 3. That’s how you’ll have to protect each other.”

At Raphael’s words, the adventurers started forming groups of 3.

The bald warrior Max, the middle-aged adventurer Hail, and Roka, the youngest among the adventurers, formed one team.

The tactless thief Keiler, the talkative archer Hos, and the one-eyed Baiman formed another team.

Lastly, the cowardly Chimi and the twin swordsmen brothers Han and Jin formed a team.

“We’ll take the lead. Each group should take care of their members and follow. If you fall behind or get lost, we’ll leave you behind. If you happen to lose the vanguard… I recommend suicide. It’ll be worse than death if you’re vaguely captured by heretics or dragged away by hungry dungeon trolls.”

“We know that, damn it…”

“Are, aren’t you scaring us too much? We know that much too.”

“I’m glad you know. Please keep it in mind.”

Raphael smiled at the adventurers.

His eyes weren’t smiling.

“Well, it seems we’re done talking. Let’s continue tracking heretics and searching for transfer stones.”

The Saint crossed one of the five gates of the central district, the one leading to the garden district.

Sion tightly gripped the vine beans in his pocket.

‘Come to think of it.. I should have brought six.’

Raphael only gave Sion five vine beans.

Despite there being a total of 6 districts in the underground city including the central district, due to Raphael’s simple mistake, he only brought 5.

‘Both me and Raphael forgot about the lake district.’

The central district, tower district, ruins, plaza, garden district. And finally the lake district.

He wouldn’t be able to plant vine beans in one place.

‘Since the tower district is a bit awkward to plant vine beans, it might be better to skip the tower district.’

Sion looked around for a suitable area in the garden district after calculating where to plant the vine beans.

“What are you looking for?”

“Ah, I was wondering if there’s a good place to plant vine beans.”

“You mean the beans from earlier?”

“Yes, yes. Those beans.”

“Hmm. In the garden district, there are sometimes large trees with good gaps for hiding. How about planting them in one of those places?”

“Large trees?”

“Yes. There are spirit trees that are said to have been hollowed out by witches to build houses in the old days.”

“Oh…”

From Rosie’s words, Sion gained information about trees suitable for planting vine beans.

As the map of the garden district was being created through map-making, Sion thought he should draw a map of the place where he planted the vine beans and sell it to the guild when he goes back up.

“Aak!”

“Huh?”

“What’s that?”

Suddenly, a scream was heard from behind.

Raphael’s expression twisted viciously at the scream that could draw the attention of surrounding creatures while everyone was moving quietly.

“I’ll go check.”

“Yes. Please do.”

With the Saint’s permission, Raphael headed towards the adventurers following behind.

“What is it? Why did you draw attention? Is it a heretic?”

“No, no! It’s a snake. I got bitten by a snake.”

“Oh no…”

The one bitten by a snake was the tactless Keiler.

Clear tooth marks were engraved on his ankle.

The snake had already disappeared, and Keiler demanded an antidote, saying the wound area was swelling.

“How about just dying?”

“No, no. Die..! Please help me..! If I die, my life is ruined…”

“We’re all about to be ruined because of you. And stop raising your voice. I want to kill you.”

“Ugh…”

Keiler gritted his teeth.

The affected area was getting more painful and burning, but he had to endure it.

“Porter, do you have an antidote?”

“I do. Does that person need it?”

“It seems so. Get payment as you see fit.”

“Yes.”

Sion approached Keiler who was sitting down and shook a bottle of antidote.

Most snakes in the garden district have venom. If the antidote isn’t taken quickly, the bitten area might need to be amputated, or one could die from blood coagulation.

“Be careful. Pay me when we get out.”

“Damn it.. Alright..”

Keiler snatched the antidote from Sion’s hand and gulped it down. There wasn’t even a word of thanks, but Sion wasn’t upset because he didn’t expect much anyway.

Meanwhile, the Saint found a spirit tree. The spirit tree was like a resting place in the garden district.

“Since we’ve stopped anyway, let’s take a short break.”

At the Saint’s words, people decided to take a short rest, and Sion took out the vine beans from his pocket and planted them next to the spirit tree.

“Maybe because we’re still at the entrance, monsters aren’t coming out in droves..”

“But we can see scattered symbols of heretics.”

“I’m starting to have trouble distinguishing whether this is their plan to make us go deeper or not.”

The inquisitors shared their opinions.

Sion, who was filling his stomach with a sandwich, suddenly realized that it had been quite a long time since he visited his grandfather’s grave while looking at the lush grass of the garden district.

He suddenly remembered going to his grandfather’s grave buried in the mountains with his father sometimes, paying respects, and clearing the weeds.

It was a memory from Earth.

‘If we had cremated him, we wouldn’t have had to go clear the weeds.’

We could have visited more often.

Thinking that, a brilliant idea flashed through Sion’s mind.

Clearing weeds and cremation.

“Excuse me, Saint.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“Here. Should we just set it all on fire?”

“What?”

The Saint looked at Sion, who was suggesting arson while absentmindedly chewing on a sandwich.

With eyes empty as if half-consumed by past reminiscence, Sion mumbled.

“I, I brought a lot of oil. And if you look carefully, this is a field of grass, right?”

“That’s true.”

“Then… how about we just set it on fire? It’s not like we’re after monster materials anyway. I think it would be good to clean up neatly by setting it on fire.”

“…”

The Saint nodded.

Paramel, who had been listening from the side, asked in bewilderment.

“No, no.. Suddenly arson…?”

“Yes. If you look carefully, the ceiling is high here too. If we set it on fire and move to another district, we won’t have to worry about suffocating from smoke.”

“Certainly, Porter-ssi’s words have a point.”

“That’s true, but. Hmm.”

“The dungeon trolls will probably come out in droves to put out the fire.”

“Really?”

“Yes. They’re very sensitive to fire.”

“Then maybe we should set more fires.”

The Saint’s eyes shone as she spoke about setting fires.

“Rather than crawling into the traps they’ve set. We’ll set fire to the troll caves and drive-hunt them.”

“Wait a moment, Saint. Aren’t you being swayed too much by the porter’s opinion? We don’t know how many dungeon trolls there are, do we?”

“That’s true.”

It could be like stirring up a hornet’s nest, though we don’t know why the trolls aren’t coming out.

Sion, who came to his senses for a moment, hurriedly stopped the Saint.

“No, Saint. I think arson isn’t right after all. We can’t control the flames either. It’s too dangerous.”

Sion had to hurriedly stop the Saint who was about to set fire to the garden district right away.

There’s a reason why you don’t set fire to places that can be set on fire.

Dungeon trolls start going berserk when their territory catches fire. The crazed ones exert about 4 times their normal strength, so setting a fire was an act that would exponentially increase the difficulty.

Thud-!

“Wh-what’s that.”

“The ground shook slightly.”

“Is it dungeon trolls?”

“…It feels like something bigger moved.”

As soon as the arson plan was canceled, a large vibration came from deep in the garden district.

The inquisitors quickly got up from their seats, and the adventurers also felt something was wrong and drew their weapons.

And then Sasaro discovered something.

“Oh….?”

A huge giant.

A monster grabbing a dungeon troll and tearing off its head to eat.

“That’s.. a Cyclops.”

One of the native species from the 7th floor and above appeared in the garden.

Also, numerous presences began to approach Sion and his companions.

Heretics and trolls were approaching.

With the huge calamity called a Cyclops in tow.