We were proceeding smoothly through the labyrinth on the third level below the Earth Ruins.
“Next is the room on the right. Don’t touch the box in the middle. Well, I guess who would fall for such blatant trap in first place? … Loloi!!!”
Loloi was attracted to the box and almost put her hand on it, but I stopped her.
Sigh. Give me a break…
“This is a straight road, but be sure to walk on the edge. There is a trap in the center.”
My mind keeps flashing back to the time I passed by with Ryan and the others.
Fina, the support sorceress who was the first wife of the hero Ryan.
And her innate skill, “the blessing of the light spirit Latius.”
It was always activated automatically, and the dangers that lurked around her could be seen as black haze.
With this skill, Fina was able to see through the labyrinth’s traps one after another, protecting the party from danger.
Her words at that time come to my mind one after another.
“Next…. Wait!!”
The three people stop.
“The room just beyond there… there’s something in there.”
A little light was leaking out of the room.
I turned off the torch here and peeked out from the shadows.
Then the goblins and…
I saw people in the back of it.
Perhaps it belonged to the people of Noppoi.
Considering the adventurers at the entrance, I don’t think they were very friendly.
“Goblins …… and adventurers, huh? They seem to be sticking to the barrier protection.” (Albus)
From behind, Burgess also peeks out.
“What do we do?” (Burgess)
That Burgess question…
Ignore it and move on?
Or do we help, even if it means going at it with goblins?
That’s what he says.
I’m just a baggage handler, and I leave the fighting to Burgess.
At least.
Burgess would have a more accurate grasp of Chris and Loloi’s capabilities than I do.
I don’t know everything about Burgess’s own fighting ability either.
He should be able to compare our total strength with the monster’s total strength and make a more reliable and accurate judgment than I can.
“There are too many goblins. We are at a disadvantage in terms of strength. I’m sorry to the guy inside, but there…” (Burgess)
He was about to say that…
“There’s a girl. She’s… she’s absolutely adorable! I’m not going to let the goblins get her! I won’t let the goblins get her! I’ll save her!”
He took back what he said before.
“Hey, there’s a girl in our party too…”.
“Liora and Ark.”
Burgess reiterated in a small voice.
“What?”
“The first one was a joke. Those are the two guys you hired to escort you to Kilket. You remember them, don’t you?”
“Uh, yeah. ……” (Albus)
“Those two. I’ve known them for a long time. Once I know that, I can’t leave them behind.” (Burgess)
“I see….”
The situation was still not good to me, but…
Anyway, I take back my previous statement.
Perhaps it is Cupid Burgess related? ……
“What are we going to do? Even though they’re goblins, it’s pretty tough to deal with that many.”
In fact, if we are not careful, we will be wiped out as well.
That is what Burgess himself said earlier.
I’m useless in battle.
On the contrary, I need an escort, which is a drag on the contrary.
“You three have nothing to do with this. And I’m not going to put you in danger because of my ego.”
Nevertheless.
If Burgess, the real party’s fighting force, goes down, it’s all the same.
“I don’t think the remaining three of us alone can conquer this labyrinth; the moment even one of us activates the trap that calls the labyrinth’s demons, we will be annihilated.”
If Burgess says he’ll do it, we’ll do it.
“Chris is right!”
After some discussion, it was decided that it would take all of us.
However, Burgess still decided that he would jump into the danger zone first. He proposed such a plan.
First, the three of us act as bait to lure the goblins away.
Then, while the goblins are away. Burgess, who had been hiding, rushes into the thinning nest and clears out the five boss goblins inside.
That was the plan.
“If we can get rid of the higher species of boss goblins, their leadership will wane and the size of the herd will shrink. Then the pursuit will weaken and the goblins in the hive will disperse.”
It was a goblin habit I hadn’t heard much about. If Burgess said it was so, it must be so.
→→→→→
And.
Burgess ducks into a side hole on the passage.
We waited a short distance away from the entrance to the room.
Loloi was the one who would make the call to lure the goblins out.
She took a big breath and ….
“Aaahh!! Goblin den!! Scary!!!”
The lines are heard in a barbed voice.
Only the voice is louder.
But the effect is immediate.
Goblins came out of the room all at once.
“Whoa! They’re really here! Albus, what are we going to do?”
“Get out of here!”
Loloi in front, then Chris, and I’m slightly ahead of him.
We run back the way we just came.
The goal is the small room we used as our sleeping place last night.
Like last night, block the entrance with rubble.
The plan was to destroy each goblin that entered through the cracks, and to stay in room until Burgess returned or the goblins dispersed.
Really, it is extremely dangerous.
It’s also a bad idea to split a small party into two.
It would also be a fool’s errand to pierce the goblin’s lair and then siege it.
But.
I guess that means those two are the ones Burgess wants to rescue even if he has to take such a bad step.
“Albus! They’re after me!”
“Oh, no. Have they caught up with us yet?”
If we have the same foot speed as an back goblin, we should be able to escape normally.
“We’ll get away with it somehow!”
“No way! The pursuers are not coming!”
I turned around in a huff.
Indeed.
There were no more goblins to chase.
“W…why?”
“Where’s Burgess?
“Shit…”
Chris was about to go back, but I unexpectedly grabbed his hand and held him back.
The fact that there are no goblins chasing us here means…
It means that Burgess is now dealing with all the goblins that were there. If that many goblins surrounded him, it becomes nearly impossible to go around killing boss goblins.
And even if he does manage to kill the boss goblin…
“If there are too many goblins there, Burgess will…”
“Even if they’re low-grade monsters, that number of goblins is a threat. We’re going to die!”
“But that doesn’t mean we’re going to abandon Burgess!”
Chris was getting mad at me, but I had my own life at stake.
“Are you ready for this?” I asked him, “Don’t cry a lot later and say, ‘It wasn’t supposed to be like this’.”
“Of course not!”
With that, Chris shook off my hand and ran off the way he came.
“Loloi will go to! Albus is too weak so you wait here!” (Loloi)
What are you going to do, split a party of only four into three?
I can’t do anything on my own anyway.
I mean, if I encounter multiple goblins with just me, I might get hit and die right away.