Chapter 22 (2/2)

“Yes, they’re valuable materials and sources of information after all.”

As Loren was taking care not to slip on the blood across the floor, he heard Lapis say something he couldn’t ignore.

He swept his great sword and cut through a group of goblins, then turned his head toward Lapis.

“What did you say just now?”

“Materials and source of information?”

“I understand material, but why source of information?”

“They should be using them as sources of information for enhancing goblins. The best way to get battle information and experience is through physical experience, after all.”

Loren gulped and looked down at a goblin’s corpse lying on the ground.

Apparently, the ruins were collecting corpses like these, and using the experience from its brain to create new goblins.

As Loren found out that killing the goblins meant that they were helping the ruins enhance the goblins, he planted his palm on his forehead.

“Then that means, the more we fight them…”

“The goblins get tougher and tougher. According to the manual, it takes a while for the ruins to make the physical bodies, but installing the experience only takes a few seconds.”

“So, what you’re saying is…”

Right when Loren was getting a bad feeling, a new wave of goblins rushed into the room.

Ritz and Jack both looked tired, but immediately moved to fight them off.

They soon realized that these goblins were slightly different than the ones from before.

The goblins until now had swung their weapons aimlessly and couldn’t properly use their shields, and weren’t that hard to deal with.

But the new goblins knew how to use their weapons as well as their shields, and were harder to fight.

“What’s happening? They got smarter!?”

“You good for nothing goblins!”

Although they knew how to use their weapons, their fighting style wasn’t that different from the ones before, and they still weren’t a match for Ritz and jack.

But their large numbers were still a threat, as both started being covered in small cuts and bruises.

One of Nim’s arrows was used to kill a goblin, but they soon started blocking her arrows with their shields and weapons.

“The chances of us surviving is going down as time carries on!”

“After they gather enough information from normal goblins, the start inputting them into the enhanced goblins.”

Lapis was flipping through the manual with her right hand, while her left hand was still working on the control panel.

If what the manual said was true, it meant that the experiences from the goblins they were fighting now were going to be used on the mock-goblins.

They were a threat already, and Loren didn’t want to think about how strong they would get once they learned how to fight.

“They aren’t even at full power right now. If they start equipping themselves with weapons we’re actually done for.”

Before, the goblins didn’t stand a chance against Loren’s great sword, but the newer ones started to clash their weapons and shields against it.

Of course, that meant there was more pressure put on the blade, even though he wasn’t facing the mock-goblins. There was already a very thin, but visible crack beginning to form on the blade.

Loren was worried at how much longer the great sword would last, as he kept feeling an unpleasant sensation while swinging it around.

But the goblins didn’t care about Loren’s worries at all and kept charging at him. Slowly, Loren started getting small cuts here and there as well.

“The big one’s here!”

The bad news reached Loren’s ears.

He looked to the doorway that Ritz was pointing at and saw the mock-goblin, but this one was carrying a giant wooden club in its right fist.

As soon as he saw that it was armed, he kicked off the floor and charged towards it.

He acted immediately because he knew that Ritz and Jack couldn’t handle this one, but the mock-goblin didn’t even act surprised, and raised its club against Loren’s great sword.

After a loud clang erupted from the clash of iron against wood, Loren’s strike was stopped.

Not only that, Loren seemed to have lost in terms of strength and force, and he got pushed back a few steps, almost falling over.

It immediately ran towards him, not missing a chance to retaliate, and brought down its club onto Loren.

Loren brought his great sword up and barely caught the strike, using all his strength to stop it.

“You…”

He poured even more strength into his arms, trying to push it away, but its enhanced arms didn’t move so easily. In the antagonized situation, the mock-goblin looked at Loren and seemed to laugh at him.

“You…You smiled just now, didn’t you?”

Loren didn’t know if it understood what he was saying.

But as soon as he muttered those words, the mock-goblins smile seemed to widen.

It was most likely a ridiculing smile.

As soon as Loren had that thought, he felt something snap in the deepest corner of his mind.

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