Chapter 13 - Day 4, 4th Floor Monster (2/2)

[You don’t know the language of the goblins so you can’t decipher this.]

Those words popped up whenever I looked at pieces of paper with scribbles on them. There were a few E rank items but most of the stuff was garbage.

”This is it. The goblin pharmacists looked at this scroll and made something. So maybe I can do something if I look at it. I will do it.” She brought the issue up before I even asked. Was she doing this on purpose to get rid of my tension? She originally had that type of character.

“... Let’s leave.”

”Yes!”

We entered the pa.s.sage beyond the big tent. ”Is there at least one more s.p.a.ce like this?”

“Yes. This isn’t where I came from.” There was one more type of goblin that knocked Yang Su-jin out. “They’re big. That uncle that was in the room with us before... They’re probably bigger than him. Lots of muscle.”

”Rank?”

”D. That... In the old movies. Ah, Rambo! They have the body like that main character and have small bottles hanging from their belts. They kept drinking from the bottles.”

I wondered if it was some type of doping. Maybe I could raise my stats if I got my hands on it.

”Excuse me, Oppa.”

“What?”

“If you have a cell phone... Here.” Yang Su-jin held out her cell phone. There was a map drawn on the screen. ”You can obtain a new talent this way.”

”I know.”

“Huh?” I knew a bit more about it than she did. I kept silent and didn’t answer Yang Su-jin’s confused look.  I would kill her if I saw anything the least bit suspicious. No matter how young she was, I wouldn’t accept everything at face value.

The pa.s.sage was long. 30, no 40 minutes. After defeating a few goblins, we arrived at a second village. I started to understand the shape of the fourth floor. It was a swirl. If we kept going straight then we would eventually reach the centre. The goblin village was located in the middle of it.

“Eh?” Yang Su-jin exclaimed. I was also surprised. The camp in front of me was shattered. The tents were torn and there were goblin corpses everywhere. It seemed like they had been cut by something, probably the man with the knife.

“T-that is it.” Yang Su-jin pointed to the body of a goblin leaning against the wall. It was certainly bigger than me, but there were no bottles on its body. I could only see the belt that had previously held the bottle.

I touched the body to check for warmth. It was cool so the fight had been a while ago. ”How long has it been like this?”

“One... A few hours?” Dammit.

I screamed at Yang Su-jin who had gone to see the tents. ”Come along, quickly!” I rushed through the dungeon at almost full speed. Thanks to the faster speed, we arrived at the next camp in five minutes.

But this place was already demolished. The tents were destroyed and all the enemies were dead. The man with the knife had already gone ahead. This wasn’t good.

I had started from the very end of the swirl. Once I saw the location where Yang Su-jin had fallen, the positions where we all fell down weren’t that different. But Yang Su-jin was captured and tortured, and I feel unconscious for approximately an hour.

If Kitchen Knife moved properly without losing the path then we would keep chasing him, only following the trail of Kitchen Knife. I hurriedly moved to the next camp. This time, there was another huge goblin at the entrance. It was also wearing a belt without the bottle.

”This is a little... It is cruel.” Cruel? It was much more meaningful than that. The corpses of the goblins were much more gruesome compared to the ones in the first and second village. The cuts were exactly the same but the depth was different. Most of the bodies were half mutilated, as though Kitchen Knife had enjoyed it.

The doping potion-- it was potent enough to make the small goblins have a huge physique. I didn’t know what would have if a 190cm tall person took it. Especially the amount that the two goblins were carrying.

Goose b.u.mps formed along my body. Maybe he had already cleared the fourth floor... And he might be waiting for us. Still, I had no choice but to head for the end.

”There is still the antidote.” I turned to see Yang Su-jin standing in front of a tent. It was the tent of the goblin pharmacist. Every camp had one.

“What?”

”That person, he didn’t take the antidote. The goblin pharmacist was holding it. There are many things I don’t know, but I’m certain this is the antidote.”

Certainly, I had seen the power of the poison that Scratchy died from. If Kitchen Knife had avoided the bottles then he wouldn’t know how dangerous the goblin poison was. So maybe I could kill Kitchen Knife with that poison.

“Here.” Yang Su-jin handed me a poison bottle. I hadn’t said anything but she guessed the situation. There was a moment of silence before we proceeded to the next pa.s.sage.

After walking for a while...

The walls on either side of us disappeared and we emerged into a wide s.p.a.ce. It was a large s.p.a.ce, like the camps, but there were no torches. However, it wasn’t like the last room on the first floor. I walked along the pa.s.sage but didn’t see the end. Only a narrow area was revealed within my field of view.

“...”

I swallowed my saliva and could feel Yang Su-jin sticking closely to my back. I didn’t pull away.

[Stealth. LV 2. 5/200]

Eh? After gaining the talent and reaching level two, the experience hadn’t gone up no matter how slowly I walked. Now, through this method...

Kung.

With the sound, ‘it’ came into my sight. It was approaching this way.

Kung.

I immediately moved away. It responded as soon as it heard footsteps.

“Huh?” My miscalculation was that I was wearing the pendant received from Yang Su-jin. In other words, I have a wider field of view than her. Thus, her reaction was too late.

“Avoid it!” I belatedly yelled, but it was useless. Yang Su-jin stiffened and couldn’t move as ‘it’ came into her sight.

Buuuong.

The knife moved through the air with a harsh sound. Yang Su-jin couldn’t even scream as her upper and lower body was separated.

‘It’ had a body that was almost three metres tall. Hundreds of thousands of blood vessels were showing up dark pink against its skin, and there was a dark aura around it. Its facial muscles were swollen so much that the eyes and nose weren’t visible. The knife in its hand looked like a baby toy and I wouldn’t have known it was Kitchen Knife if it wasn’t for the tattoos.

[Park Jong-gyu. Type ???. Rank ???.]

[A gang member. His inner desires made him recognized as a dungeon explorer, and he was attracted to the ‘Goblin Spice’ that promotes abnormal development of the body.]

[Repeated overdoses has removed reason from his body and the synergy with his inherent desires had created an unprecedented change.]

[Unique Talent - No.005. Atlas has awakened.]

[Named Monster.]

”I think I’m going crazy.” I held the bottle in my hand.

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