--

"Here we are...stage 9. Ugh, I sure don’t miss this place." Jen frowned and pinched her nose after being assaulted by the acrid smell of the environment.

The stench of goblins was even thicker in this level. Mostly because there will be more of them around, and the possibility of an Elite Goblin and Goblin Lord is much higher here.

"It’s better than the Orc Swamps," Derek stated, and nobody disagreed. They’ve been there before, well, except Ren, of course.

Derek turned to Kayce, who already had her eyes sparkling with silver light, and asked, "Kaycee? What’s up?"

"100 kilometers in diameter, we were southwest near the center. There’s an active goblin settlement there led by a goblin lord. There’s also another settlement northeast, but that looks more like an outpost, actually."

"A mining outpost, to be more specific. They strip-mined and found an abundance of gold."

"Ah, damn!" Jules swore, eyes bulging in surprise at the news. "We’ve got to hurry there. They’d turn all the gold into pyrite; we’d lose out on a lot!"

"True, that." Jen looked concerned too.

"Kaycee, how deep have they went?"

"Pretty deep. They’re already building a tunnel network in search for more. I can’t say for sure, but they must’ve already mined the majority of it."

"Have you checked the larger settlement? Did they already convert all the gold into pyrite?"

"I can’t," Kaycee frowned. "I’ve tried, but there’s some sort of magic or spell blocking my sight. There must be a shaman in there; I was able to see some ritual circles."

"Oh crap!" Derek sounded frustrated. "Wait, didn’t you say you saw the Goblin Lord?"

"Yeah. It’s exploring the settlement with a few of its bodyguards. The thing obscuring my vision doesn’t cover the entire settlement. I could see some things, but not clearly. Sometimes they’re visible, sometimes they’re blurry. It makes me wonder if they’re illusions or not."

"Yikes," Derek hissed. "It seems that we’re in for a tricky time, guys."

It seems that there is a series of unfortunate events here, and the party couldn’t help but feel like it’s a shame that they arrived at an inopportune time.

And they have the right to. This was one of the instances that is both fortunate and unfortunate. The instance could’ve put them in a timeline where the goblins had just started strip mining and just discovered a rich raw gold deposit. But they didn’t; instead, they arrived at a timeline where they’re a little too late for that.

The goblins have already harvested the majority of the good things and are defiling them with their little grubby hands.

Goblins like gold. Call it a stereotype whatsoever, but that is true to this world. They also like treasures...correction, they like stealing treasures. Finders, keepers, if you will. But they have a particular obsession with gold.

They hoard gold like gremlins; they could turn on each other for some measly grams of gold. Hell, they could be recruited with gold. And the goblins have a unique way to ’own’ the gold they earn, and that is by turning it into ’Goblin ’Gold’—also known as pyrite, or fool’s gold.

In human eyes, this was definitely a downgrade. Real gold has so much more value than pyrite does; that’s why humans have a specific dislike of goblins because they’re devaluing gold.

But as much as it’s a loss to let them covert gold into pyrite, Derek hasn’t lost his mind yet. There’s no way he’s sending their party straight to the goblin settlement just for a few kilograms of gold.

Sure, it’s a chance for them to earn more, but truthfully? They’re in no dire need for credits. Their foul mood mostly came from the idea that the goblins are turning valuable resources into waste.

This is something that’s not unique to the Green Tea Party alone; it’s a collective agreement of dungeon explorers and parties.

Besides, the possible presence of a goblin shaman makes this particularly tricky.

Goblins can use magic; they somehow have its potential somewhere in their gross DNA. Goblins that can use magic are called goblin shamans, and they could do a lot of things far from the norm of goblins, especially elites, lords, and bosses.

They don’t show up regularly. Only sometimes, and their magic tricks could pose an added challenge to an individual or parties that encounter them.

Just take the thing that obscured Kayce’s bloodline ability, for example. From public knowledge, that should be a concealment veil, a magic spell that makes it harder for others to study the real structure of their settlement.

It’s not that hard to dispell or destroy. Even Ren, who’s encountering something like this for the first time, could do it. But still, even this weak spell works well enough against Kaycee’s bloodline ability.

Hell, they’d be in deeper shit if the goblin lord turns out to be a shaman.

"Okay, we’ll start with the usual. We leave the settlement for last. Be on the lookout and move with caution. I want us to ambush goblin groups along the way. They should be gathering resources too, and that might save us some time."

Figuring out whether the Goblin Lord was a shaman or not could be left for later when they’ve gathered enough loot. For now, there’s work to do.

And with that, another exploration started.

The party went out with tools at hand and began collecting along the way while keeping an eye out for goblin packs.

It didn’t take long for them to find one; they moved close to each other too, which made the following ambush way easier.

Derek’s guess was spot on; this group was indeed collecting resources around the area, and they did a good job so far; it saved the party a lot of time searching for them manually.

As for those they left behind or ignored, they were gathered along the way.

They circled around the area, gathering resources as they went and clearing goblin groups along the way without making too much noise.

They’ve gone to the mining outpost, but Kaycee told them that there was nothing much to see here. Most of the gold had already been mined and brought back to the main settlement.

Even if they stubbornly spent more time exploring the tunnels and digging in hopes of finding more, they wouldn’t get enough for their efforts, so it’s best if they just left it be.

They did check if the goblins left some good things, but that’s wishful thinking. The greedy little creatures wouldn’t dare to leave gold and shiny things behind. They’d rather die before doing that.

Now that they’ve circled the whole area, they returned to their spawn point and rested for a bit.

"The Elite Goblin must be at the settlement. We’ve found no signs of it along the way," Jules informed the team.

Kaycee stayed silent. She was less effective here because she got countered by magic. Ren knew that this was going to happen more frequently the further they went into the dungeon levels, and it’s a big deal, really. She’s still irreplaceable in this team.

"Well, that’s the only possibility left," Jen stated as she roasted some sweet potatoes over the open fire. "I refuse to believe that we ’narrowly’ missed it along the way. Not with Kaycee around. She would’ve seen it before us, after all."

"That’s true," Derek nodded. "But that’s where it gets tricky. We can’t spy on the settlement. We don’t have any idea how many goblins are in there right now. We also haven’t figured out if the lord is the shaman or not."

"Well, there are few options left for us; what else can we do than pick the best one we can have?" Jen rhetorically asked.

"Point taken," Derek sighed. "Alright, old-fashioned it is then. We go in blind but cautious. Look out for traps, ambushes, and whatnot."

"Once we’re inside, we can search for the formation and break it. Without it, I can be of more help," Kaycee informed. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"That’s natural!" said Jen. "We’re going to have to take it down anyway since it’s going to confuse us while we’re inside too."

Ren didn’t speak. He doesn’t have to. His party members already pointed out the important parts; he’s got nothing to add.

If anything, he’s somewhat looking forward to witnessing magic at play for the first time.

He wasn’t scared or anything, and it won’t be the great and devastating spells he read about in the book...at least not yet, but magic is magic. Even he, a reluctant transmigrator, can’t remain indifferent about the concept.

And so, the team ate something and rested for a bit before heading out.

Kaycee told them about a path that has less surveillance, one that they could use to infiltrate the settlement without raising immediate alarms. The route wasn’t blocked by the obscurement magic, so she was able to see it and mark it in her mind.

The party followed this route, and as expected, there’s barely any surveillance here. Through here, the party entered and prepared to clear the level.

[Kill 38/250 Ordinary Goblins]

[Kill 0/2 Goblin Elites]

[Kill 0/1 Goblin Lord]