That's right, that's what adventure is like!

The cave was plunged into darkness and silence.

Heaving breaths came from the bear goblin's throat. The runes on the javelin had dimmed, but the trembling at its tail had not stopped and was particularly clear in his ears.

pat-

The fluorescent moss was brought out again, illuminating everything around it.

All the goblins were dead, all of them pierced by javelins, the runes on them seemingly requiring a life as a sacrifice.

The bear goblin was in terrible condition. He was kneeling on one knee, using his other hand to support himself with a nail hammer that he had somehow found. The hair below his abdomen was completely soaked in blood.

Roland walked over.

The blade had just been caught in the burrowing worm's carapace, and the front half was slightly bent, but that didn't prevent it from resting against the goblin's neck.

With Hanfeng beside him, the bear-goblin raised his head, his bloodshot eyes filled with exhaustion, and his voice laced with anger.

"Despicable! Human! I'll save you!!!"

Its words were full of murderous intent; it believed that it had saved Roland, otherwise the burrowing worm would have already swallowed it whole.

Roland did not deny this, but he also noticed that the goblin's grip on the mace tightened imperceptibly.

If it weren't for the sword at its neck, it probably would have already launched a second attack.

These are the bear goblins. They can communicate, cooperate, and even be bribed, but you should never trust them.

Baseness is in the nature of all goblins, without exception.

Roland did not rush to make a move.

He turned his gaze to the human corpse, pointing to the bronze badge around its neck: "Tell me, how did that person die?"

As he got closer, he could clearly see the inscription on the badge, which clearly stated that this was a member of the raven squad.

That's the value of the Adventurer's Badge; at least you can leave a name after you die, proving your identity.

"Him?" The goblin's amber eyes widened slightly, a cruel smile playing on his lips. "Foolish, trespassing, death!"

Roland frowned, slicing the two into a thick layer of fat, leaning forward to look directly at the goblin bear, and said in a deep voice, "Say something I can understand."

This is the trouble with the lack of a unified language. If he could understand goblin language, he wouldn't need to go through all that trouble guessing or asking repeatedly.

The goblin let out a cold chuckle, its eyes blazing with fury: "Kill me! No! Answer me!"

This time Roland understood; he was begging for mercy.

After a moment of contemplation, he gave his answer: "Tell me what happened, and I won't kill you. I'll give you a new way out."

The sudden setback startled the goblin, who then pondered for a long time with his underdeveloped brain before slowly nodding.

It agreed.

Roland did not rush to move the longsword away, but instead pieced together the goblin's fragmented words into a coherent logical whole through repeated questioning.

According to it, this is indeed an abandoned village. Although no humans have come here for a long time, there are a considerable number of wild animals of unknown origin.

The goblins and bear goblins arrived a few months ago. It thought the place was nice and decided to settle down. It wasn't until the deaths of several of its subordinates that it realized this place was a hunting ground for burrowing worms.

It's rare for two types of monsters to coexist peacefully in the same area, especially since burrowing worms can't communicate at all.

So, after losing a lot of goblins in the collisions, the bear goblin decided to leave, but encountered an unusual situation when he went out.

"Dwarf! Damn it! Stop me!!!"

The goblin roared and pounded the earth beneath its feet, seemingly expressing its displeasure to Emma outside.

It's pretty clear now that this abandoned village is Emma's hunting ground. She raises wild beasts for a group to attract monsters, using them as trials to recruit new members.

As for the dead member of the raven squad, this is how the goblin explained it.

A few days ago, the entire four members of the raven squad suddenly entered and stumbled upon another conflict between the goblin and the burrowing worm. Three of them were swallowed by the burrowing worm, while the remaining one was killed by the goblin and dragged back to the cave.

"Humans! It's delicious! You're still eating!!"

Upon hearing this, the goblin revealed a bloodthirsty pleasure, only stopping when Roland's blade cut in another inch.

"Where did they break in from? Are there any signs of a fight?" Roland continued to ask.

"Nothing ahead! Let's explore! I'm excited!"

This means that the members of the raven squad were not hiding from some powerful monster; on the contrary, they entered this place with a purpose and were exploring it with great interest.

That's strange.

Roland frowned, not quite understanding how they had gotten here. Logically speaking, the Raven Squad should have been exploring that nameless canyon...

!! ?

canyon?

If he remembered correctly, the commission to find the missing merchant guild specifically mentioned that Balor's men were taken away by goblins, right?

"Depend on!"

Roland withdrew his hand and slapped the goblin's shoulder hard, startling it so much that it nearly ran into the sword's edge.

"What? You!"

The goblin turned his head, burning with rage, but saw a hint of regret on Roland's face.

I should have thought of that earlier.

To avoid any misunderstanding, he continued, "Do you remember where that group of people came down?"

"Know!"

"Then lead the way."

……

The underground caves were more complex than Roland had imagined.

Judging from the surrounding traces, the burrowing worms must have lived here for a long time, and the goblins reinforced the weak passage behind it, resulting in its current appearance.

This area is actually inhabited by more than just these two types of monsters, but most of them are not as powerful as that burrowing worm.

Therefore, upon seeing the powerful burrowing claws on the bear goblin's back, most chose to flee, with only two or three extremely hungry ones coming up to their deaths.

click-

Roland drew his sword from a mushroom shaped like a human, severed its limbs as trophies, and then looked up at the massive rock above him.

The stone hung high above the earthen wall, entirely black, and looked unremarkable, but in fact it had something extraordinary about it.

According to the bear goblin, it will open a crack at fixed times, providing a passage to leave this place and go up above.

The gap wasn't large enough for a goblin of that size to pass through, so they could only periodically send goblins through to check the situation, which did indeed bring them quite a bit of success.

Roland's gaze swept across the ground beneath the rocks, and sure enough, he discovered numerous human skeletons, as well as broken iron swords, tattered cloth, and other items.

More importantly, there is a small piece of blue leaf among them that has not withered to this day and emits a unique scent.

This is enough to prove that the association's intelligence was correct; the caravan sent by Balor was indeed killed by the goblins and then dragged into the cave.

This also explains why Yogurt didn't find any trace of the monster, because the entrance is only open at certain times.

The only question is, why is it so clean outside?

Why did Barlow send them over?

Roland looked at the stone, and he already had a pretty good idea of ​​what was going on.