Chapter 52
It was a landscape that could only have been swept through by a sandstorm. There was no other way to explain the scene before their eyes.
Zahar and the team members dismounted from their two-humped camels and entered the goblin village.
They saw goblin corpses half-buried in the sand.
Their condition was truly horrendous.
As if a sandstorm had scraped past their skin, half their skin and muscle had been torn away, and entrails spilled out, staining the sand a dark red.
Having felt extreme terror and agony until the very moment of death, the goblins’ faces were grotesquely contorted.
“What on earth happened here?”
Zahar reached out and touched one of the goblin corpses.
He could still feel residual warmth.
“They haven’t been dead for even an hour.”
“You’re saying this happened within just an hour? Then we should have seen the sandstorm ourselves.”
Felix wore an expression of disbelief.
The sandstorms that occasionally blew through the desert destroyed everything in their path.
Only those who had experienced the terror of a sandstorm filling the horizon could truly know its fear.
No matter how great an Awakened might be, if swept up in a massive sandstorm, they could not guarantee their survival.
Before a great natural disaster, one could see just how insignificant humans were.
The problem was that if a sandstorm of that magnitude had blown through, there was no way Zahar and his team wouldn’t have known.
No matter how massive the sand dunes blocking their view, they could not have failed to see a sandstorm large enough to swallow the goblin village whole.
“What is this?”
“What on earth happened?”
The team members looked around with confused expressions.
Not a single living goblin was in sight.
There had been over a thousand goblins here; to think not one had survived.
It was a situation their common sense simply could not comprehend.
Mandy knelt on one knee to examine the body of a goblin.
The goblin she saw was no ordinary specimen.
“It’s a hobgoblin.”
Hobgoblins were stronger than dozens of ordinary goblins combined.
Some even possessed special skills.
E-rank Awakened and below could not hope to match a hobgoblin.
And yet such a powerful creature lay dead in a gruesome state.
Its flesh had been completely torn away, and even the exposed bones were smooth, as if sanded down with sandpaper.
No matter how they looked at it, the wounds did not seem like those inflicted by a natural sandstorm.
Not to mention the lingering light of terror in the hobgoblin’s wide-open eyes.
Mandy furrowed her brow unconsciously.
“If it’s a hobgoblin, it should have been able to avoid the sandstorm. It’s not as if this one couldn’t leave the village because of camaraderie. I don’t know. What on earth happened here?”
She scratched her head irritably.
That was when it happened.
“Team Leader! There’s a survivor here.”
Seido called out to Zahar in an urgent voice.
At that, Mandy and the others ran toward Seido.
Seido pointed at the ground and spoke to them.
“I think it’s an underground prison.”
“A prison?”
Just as Zahar looked down at the ground.
“Save us!”
“Get us out of here!”
Faint human voices could be heard from underground.
They were clearly human voices, not goblins.
Zahar shouted urgently.
“Hurry and dig out the sand.”
“Yes!”
The team members rushed in without hesitation and began digging.
With the Awakened pooling their strength, they scooped away over a meter of sand in an instant. Then the stone ceiling of a prison became visible.
Darren struck the prison ceiling with his fist.
Boom!
With a thunderous noise, the ceiling shattered, and the faces of those bound inside became visible.
Zahar recognized their faces.
“Lawton! Jack!”
The man named Lawton was Team 2’s leader, and Jack was a team member.
Both were combat-type Awakened with considerable skill.
They looked up at Zahar with their arms and legs bound.
They had been beaten so badly that their faces were covered in dark bruises and swollen to the point of being unrecognizable.
Team 7 hurriedly pulled the two up and untied their restraints.
Zahar asked Lawton, “What happened?”
“We were ambushed. Those cowardly goblins set traps and waited for us.”
“What about the other team members?”
“They’re all dead. The bastards ate them.”
“Hmm!”
“We were about to be eaten too, unable to resist at all.”
Lawton trembled as if just imagining it was horrific.
The fear was plain on the face of Jack, the team member.
The goblins had killed and eaten their teammates right before their eyes.
The sight of people being torn apart alive and disappearing into goblin mouths had left them with an unforgettable trauma.
Even for Awakened who lived close to death, witnessing their comrades being devoured was an exceedingly rare experience.
Mandy asked Lawton, “What about the sandstorm?”
“Huh?”
“What happened to the sandstorm?”
“I don’t know! It blew in suddenly and hit the goblin village.”
“Suddenly?”
“We were out of our minds because we were about to be eaten. We didn’t have the luxury to look around. But when we came to our senses, a massive sandstorm was hitting the goblin village.”
“You’re saying you didn’t sense any warning signs at all?”
“That’s right!”
Mandy deeply furrowed her brow at Lawton’s answer.
She had no interest in how Lawton had survived. What concerned her was why the goblin village had ended up like this.
Then Lawton spoke cautiously.
“I might have been out of my mind for a moment, but I think I heard a human voice then.”
“What?”
“I think I faintly heard a human voice inside the sandstorm.”
“A human voice? Are you sure?”
“I can’t be certain. I literally wasn’t in my right mind then.”
Lawton wore an uncertain expression.
Zahar spoke.
“Let’s stop the interrogation there. He is not a prisoner.”
“Understood.”
“We’re taking Lawton and Jack and returning to the shelter.”
At Zahar’s command, the team members took Lawton and Jack and left the goblin village.
Mandy lingered at the very back, looking back at the goblin village buried in sand.
Although they had rescued Lawton and Jack, many unresolved questions remained.
“Perhaps it is still too soon for humans to advance this far……”
* * *
The shelter constructed by the Pathfinder team was located in a sandstone area.
They had built it in a sandstone region where sand had hardened into rock over many years.
The shelter, made from materials specially developed in Neo Seoul, measured fifty meters in width, fifty meters in length, and five meters in height.
Constructed by assembling partition walls brought by truck, the shelter contained no individual spaces.
It was, quite literally, temporary shelter, so there was no reason to build it in a complicated manner.
On one side of the shelter’s interior, over ten massive trucks were parked.
Technicians were inspecting trucks damaged by sand, while on the other side, Awakened were busily moving about.
Then Team 7 entered the shelter.
Zahar shouted.
“Team 2 was hit. Hurry and treat them.”
“What?”
“Damn it!”
The Awakened rushed over.
Two healers attended to Lawton and Jack and treated them.
Team 1 Leader asked Zahar.
“What happened? Why Team 2?”
“They said they were ambushed by a goblin horde.”
“Taken down by mere goblins?”
“It was a great tribe of over a thousand. Even if it had been Team 1 instead of Team 2, the result wouldn’t have changed.”
“Did more than a thousand goblins really gather there?”
“I confirmed it with my own eyes.”
At Zahar’s answer, Team 1 Leader’s expression hardened gravely.
“That’s insane. Over a thousand goblins in one place.”
Near Neo Seoul, such a large goblin horde did not exist.
Even though they were low-grade monsters, if over a thousand gathered, they became a serious threat, so they were preemptively subjugated.
Team 1 Leader was an experienced Awakened, but he had never seen a goblin horde numbering a thousand.
“A great army of that many goblins. This is crazy!”
Basically, goblins were the lowest-grade monsters.
While they demonstrated formidable power in groups, it was difficult for a group to grow beyond a certain size.
Because before their numbers could grow, they became prey for other monsters.
Goblins existed at the very bottom of the monster ecosystem. They were busy fleeing from attacks by larger monsters.
Because of that, despite their tremendous reproductive ability, it was difficult for them to form a great army. Yet here, a massive village of over a thousand had existed.
It meant the environment was favorable for goblins to multiply.
Noticing Team 1 Leader’s concern, Zahar spoke.
“Fortunately, a sandstorm hit the goblin village and wiped them out.”
“What?”
“It sounds absurd, but it’s true. I checked it with my own eyes.”
“If that’s true, that’s a relief.”
Just as Team 1 Leader let out a belated sigh of relief.
Kwoong!
The shelter suddenly shook violently.
“What?”
“What’s happening?”
Those inside the shelter looked at each other in shock.
Kwoong!
At that moment, the shelter shook violently once more.
Team 1 Leader hastily issued an order.
“Find out what’s happening.”
“Yes!”
Team 1 members answered and ran outside.
Shortly after, they returned pale-faced.
“W-we’re in big trouble. A cyclops has stormed in outside.”
“What? A cyclops?”
“Yes! It’s attacking the shelter.”
The complexions of everyone inside the shelter changed completely.
The cyclops was a monster belonging to the highest danger group, alongside ogres.
Its actual rank was merely B-rank, but it was evaluated as more dangerous than A-rank monsters.
A massive body exceeding seven meters, with overwhelming strength.
Tremendous magic resistance that deflected ordinary magic.
Above all, it walked on two legs and was capable of thought.
That was the main reason the cyclops was considered more dangerous than the ogre, whose instincts overrode its reason.
Kwaang!
An even greater vibration was felt as the cyclops attacked the shelter.
The impacted shelter crumpled greatly, and seams split open. Then the eye of the one-eyed giant became visible.
It was unmistakably a cyclops.
“Crazy!”
The shelter was the culmination of Neo Seoul’s technology.
Ordinary monster attacks couldn’t even scratch it. Yet that shelter was being crumpled and torn like paper.
It meant the cyclops’s attack power exceeded the shelter’s defense.
If they allowed the cyclops to attack any further, the shelter would collapse. They had to subdue the cyclops before that happened.
Just as Team 1 Leader was about to issue an attack command.
Kwang!
The shelter shook again with an explosion.
The opposite wall was torn away, and two more cyclopes revealed themselves.
“There wasn’t just one?”
“Crazy!”
A light of despair rose on the faces of the people inside the shelter.
A cyclops was something they could hardly handle even one of. Yet there were three cyclopes.
Team 1 Leader and Zahar exchanged glances.
Team 1 Leader issued an order.
“We’re abandoning the shelter. Escape by teams and return to Neo Seoul.”
The moment his order fell, the Pathfinder teams ran outside.
Bang!
A giant club fell on the head of an Awakened who was fleeing.
The cyclops had attacked.
The Awakened died instantly without even letting out a scream.
“Krehehe!”
The cyclops crunched up the crushed corpse like ground meat.
Not satisfied with just one human, it attacked others.
“Kraak!”
“Kek!”
Screams continuously rang out around the shelter.
The cyclopes surrounded the shelter in a triangle, attacking the Awakened and enjoying a feast.
Most of the Awakened couldn’t break through the encirclement of the cyclopes and were helplessly killed.
A massive cyclops blocked the path of Team 7 as they ran forward.
It was an exceptionally large one.
It was clearly the leader of the cyclopes.
They had to divert its attention.
Zahar spoke to Anika.
“We need bait.”
“Okay!”
Having been together for a long time, Anika quickly realized the meaning behind Zahar’s words.
Lightning flashed from Anika’s hand and struck Mandy’s back.
It was her magic, Lightning Bolt.
Mandy collapsed without even letting out a scream.
Mandy’s entire body was paralyzed, unable to move.
Anika spat on the back of Mandy’s head and muttered.
“I didn’t like you from the very beginning.”
That was the last thing Mandy remembered.
Soon, deep darkness came.
And so Mandy lost consciousness.