Chapter 52
Things were getting worse and worse.
The lucky thing was that Grognak was safe.
Grognak, whose eyes had turned goblin-like, managed to crawl out of the cave on his own before sunset, contrary to their worries.
Chase had been right.
Goblins do not come out after sunset.
That meant that if they could get outside without having to work,
they would have no need to worry about being beaten by the large goblins.
But.
"Hey, Chase. Isn't it way too cold here...? I want to go inside, so what am I supposed to do?"
It seemed this method could not be used forever either.
Our bodies were slowly turning into goblins.
In particular, Grognak's transformation was progressing far faster than Chase had expected.
By morning, aside from his eyes, he had looked perfectly normal, but now his muscles had wasted away and his body had become extremely small.
And his skin was also gradually turning greener.
"Don't tell me... you ate more?"
"I was starving, and the sweet smell kept making my head go weird. What was I supposed to do? I couldn't stand it. I really couldn't stand it... damn it."
'I'm going crazy.'
To be honest, Chase's patience was also almost at its limit.
Since coming to Goblin Cave, all he had eaten was a piece of bread and a little water.
Hunger was one thing, but thirst was truly unbearable.
While working alongside the goblins, Chase had agonized countless times over whether to eat the rotten meat.
After all, it kept looking like sweet tree fruit.
If he ate this meat, he might be able to satisfy both his thirst and hunger at once.
That kind of devilish whisper had been pounding at his brain.
"Fuck."
"..."
He had nothing to say but curses.
Silence hung in the air for a while.
"Hey... Chase. Should I just die here instead?"
"...Why are you saying that all of a sudden?"
"No matter how I think about it, I don't have the confidence to keep living in this state. I can't see ahead, I'm drooling over rotten meat and muddy water like some crazy monster, and... maybe, maybe just dying here would be the better future?"
Chase shook his head.
"That's not it."
"How can you say it's not? Fuck, maybe I should just kick the bucket before I turn into a monster..."
"Grognak. I escaped from here. And was the version of me you remember a monster?"
Grognak shut his mouth.
Aside from his shaved beard and bruises, Chase had been fine.
He remembered that clearly.
"This is just my opinion, but if we can get out, everything will be fine."
"..."
"Because all the memories of what we went through here will disappear. Right, we'll definitely feel like we've had a nightmare. And dreams are highly volatile, so they vanish quickly, don't they? So don't say things like that."
Both body and mind would return to normal.
So there was no reason to die.
Chase made that claim.
"All right..."
Grognak's body was trembling.
And that probably wasn't just because of the cold he was talking about.
The feeling of no longer being oneself was truly fucking awful.
Chase waited for someone.
His arms were full of what looked like goblin teeth.
With the certainty that the one he was waiting for would appear soon, he simply held his breath.
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Plod, plod.
Plod, plod.
Footsteps can be heard.
Outside the cave.
Under the night sky, only one being would come toward them.
Chase stared down at the ground beneath his feet.
The merchant took a memo from his pocket as always today, too.
【I sell food and water. Those are the things you need, right?】
When he first met the merchant, Chase had been flustered.
So he could only stay still and let things flow as they would.
But now things were different.
"How much does it cost?"
The merchant was more generous than expected.
After all, even when Chase smacked Grognak in the jaw and stopped the trade, he didn't impose even the slightest penalty.
You could call it a matter of luck.
It seemed that, aside from violent acts—such as trying to forcibly take the item you were trading for—there was room to try many things.
【8 teeth.】
That was the right answer.
Chase held out the goblin teeth to the merchant.
These teeth were taken from goblin corpses stored in the storage room.
The method for opening the locked door was actually quite simple.
After finishing work, Chase headed straight for the cave.
He had seen a lazy goblin get beaten to a pulp by the large goblin yesterday.
That was probably why he thought it was a place where corpses that looked like that were stored.
It was a place where bizarre phenomena happened in every possible way,
but certain parts still followed the laws of reality.
Just like yesterday, there were quite a few goblins beaten to death today as well.
Goblins carry the corpses of their own kind to the storage room.
That was when Chase saw the goblins open the locked door with their long nails.
So he pretended to be clearing away the corpses,
then used those nails to pick the lock and went inside, magically collecting a large number of teeth.
"You definitely said 8 teeth, right? Then can I pay with this?"
The merchant nodded.
Chase bought all of the merchant's water and food.
It was only taking back what was theirs, but this would solve their thirst and hunger.
He wouldn't have to worry about being tempted by rotten meat anymore.
"Then do you also sell escape scrolls?"
【I also sell escape scrolls. Those are the things you need, right?】
"How much?"
【One kidney from a non-goblin race. However, it must be from a living person.】
"..."
Chase patted his stomach.
Do you remember when they took Grognak's tooth before?
Even though the merchant yanked the tooth out roughly, no blood spurted out.
Grognak did not complain of any pain and calmly ate bread like a perfectly normal person.
Without any surgical procedure, she could keep the trader's body unharmed
and still prove that she could take the full price.
If the price of the escape scroll was the same as last time,
then does that mean I'm missing a kidney?
Chase gave a bitter smile.
If he was down just one kidney, he had proven with his own body that survival would not be greatly affected.
"Do you have any medicine that can return the user to their original physical condition? Something like a medicine that stops goblinization from progressing..."
【Such an item does not exist.】
"Then how much are the journal and pen, respectively?"
【One arm each.】
"Could you come back to this place in an hour? I'll buy them together then."
【Understood.】
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"Grognak. I've found a way out."
"...Is that really true?"
"Instead, we'll have to give one kidney to that merchant. And it looks like I've already given one kidney to that merchant."
Silence fell.
Chase's words were no different from saying that there was only one dwarf who could escape this cave.
"How long can you hold out?"
"..."
"If you can't hold out, it'd be better to get out right now. I told the merchant to come back to this place in an hour. However, if you can hold out, I'll see if I can find a way to get the escape scroll back from the merchant without trading."
One kidney.
Grognak had no medical knowledge whatsoever, but
the loss of an organ was certainly something that required a lot of thought.
"I think about a day is my limit."
"A day?"
"Yeah. To be honest, it seems I've gotten to the point where I can understand what the goblins are saying. My head feels like it's getting dumber and dumber, and my already nonexistent self-control seems to be hitting rock bottom..."
Chase nodded.
"I'll do my best."
"What are you going to do if I get out?"
"Don't worry about it. I'll find a way out somehow. I don't plan on just dying here either. In my opinion, trade is only a last resort. There's definitely a perfect answer that lets us get out without losing anything."
For now, he just wanted to believe that.
Chase went into the cave and prepared to trade with the merchant.
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The trade was finished.
The merchant disappeared into the darkness.
"Ugh..."
"Even if it's hard to eat, you have to force it down. We have to somehow relieve our thirst and hunger."
It should have been food far more valuable than rotten meat,
but the food and water they had brought for the expedition tasted nauseating, as if they had gone bad.
But.
Their thirst and hunger were making their already dwindling self-control even weaker, so they had to force themselves to eat.
The two dwarves shoved the food and water down their throats.
"...I'll rest first."
"Go ahead."
Grognak tried to sleep, trembling as though he were terribly cold.
Chase wrote the journal.
He filled it with the information they'd learned about Goblin Cave so far.
Anyway, the contents would obviously be tampered with.
He should keep it brief and to the point, as much as possible.
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【7th Raid Result】
【Author: Chase】
Number of entrants: 2
Exploration result: 2 escape scrolls consumed. 1 survivor, 1 ???
▼ Goblin Cave
1. This place is the 3rd zone of Dreamland. (It's right in front of the Core Room)
2. The area can be broadly divided into a forest and a cave, but most of the space is taken up by the cave. (Think of the cave as a huge building with about 80 floors)
3. Just like outside, there are morning, noon, evening, night, and dawn.
4. There are strange goblins roaming this cave, and they distinguish their own kind by smell. So if you don't want to be found out, cover yourself in stench and fool their sense of smell. If you're exposed, be careful, because you'll have to face an almost endless number of goblins. Also, don't speak in front of them, use magic, or do anything else a goblin can't do.
5. When morning comes, the goblins work. They usually gather fruit from trees that bear rotten meat, and since the stench is thick not only in the forest but also in the cave, I suspect they grow trees inside as well. If you want to explore the cave at night, you absolutely have to work. Otherwise, there's a high chance you'll be caught by the large goblins and beaten, or even killed, so be careful.
6. Goblins cannot come out of the cave in the evening.
7. The moment you enter Goblin Cave, goblinization begins. Goblinization changes not only the explorer's appearance, but also the whole person—personality, habits, tastes, and so on. The changes become noticeable from the second day, and if goblinization progresses too far, you may even lose your sight, so you have to escape this place as quickly as possible.
8. Rotten meat and muddy water accelerate goblinization. Do not eat or drink them.
9. There is an elevator somewhere in the cave that can be used to escape.
10. I haven't confirmed this exactly, but... if you escape Goblin Cave, goblinization is undone.
▼ Merchant
1. As soon as you enter the dungeon, he steals all of the explorer's belongings.
2. The merchant appears in the forest between evening and night.
3. Never look the merchant in the face. You may be bewitched.
4. To recover your belongings, you have to pay a price, and what the merchant wants is almost always body parts. Aside from the escape scroll, most things can be exchanged using goblin corpses stored in the 1st-floor storage room, so make good use of that. (For food and water, it's 8 teeth.........)
5. The merchant is quite generous.
6. If I return alive, that means there is a way to get my belongings back from the merchant without paying the price.
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This should be enough.
It should be fine to send it with the journal when I send Grognak back.
Chase set down the pen and stood up.
Their thirst and hunger had been relieved.
He could now deal with the temptation of rotten meat and muddy water to some extent.
'There's still something I haven't checked.'
The journal from the previous raid.
It was still in the storage room.
'I was too busy pulling teeth...'
Chase let out a small sigh.
Maybe that journal contained a hint about how to retrieve the escape scroll.
However.
The memo he had seen on the 1st floor before was still bothering him.
Even so, as long as there was even a 1% chance,
his resolve to get the journal in hand would not change.
He slowly made his way toward the cave.