Chapter 20: 20- The Collector (2)

"Hap!"

Right before the insane-goblin falls to his death head-first, smashed to a green pulp, becoming a stain on the otherwise clean dungeon floor. Oscar measures the distance, and took out his landing gears: a pair of stone-age pickaxe behind his back. And smashed it against the wall, just when he felt the tension around his waist was just right. Moments before the safety-rope could pull him with full force, propelling and slinging him god knows where. 

"Bam!"

Upside down, he jammed them into the rocks. Practically halting his fall to a stop. The crazy-goblin grips the brakes with one hand and swings his other hand above. Trying to undo his bindings in one swift motion, only to fail... Horribly.

Try as he might, the panicking-goblin couldn't undo the knot. Nor he could cut it with his fumbling claws. 

"Ack!" Getting out of breath, he cursed. 

It contracts increasingly around his waist, per seconds waste. And It won't be long when he wouldn't be able to take it anymore, then: either he would have to let go of the supposed brakes, and let the bungee-rope slingshot him straight to the ceiling, before continuing with his soul to the heavens. Or he persists, and gets torn apart from waist down. Both surefire way to get killed, and leave his name in records of the most stupid re-deaths. But the intelligent-goblin, chooses the third option, which was humiliating but effective. 

Gathering his breath, the stuck-up-goblin slowly starts wriggling his butt to the air, side to side, left to right. That quickly escalated to vigorous shaking, jerking and squirming; practically performing twerking upside-down, while being stuck in an idiotically-dangerous situation. 

'Anything to keep alive baby!' 

It wasn't long before the shameless-goblin gets snapped free from his bindings. At the cost of his non-existent pride and his... Pants. That gets pulled along the rope, before it slingshots beyond his eyes could follow. He didn't gets the time to mourn for his lost-pants, adjusting his weight in mid-fall along the walls with pickaxes. Oscar jumps down the ground with style. Albeit, without pants. 

"Ack! You! Pervet!" Giving middle-finger above. The goblin-without-pants strapped the pickaxes behind his back. Before Walking ahead, following the daily route with his trusty nose. 

                                                           

The colorful flowers known to attract creatures out of curiosity. But, almost all the denizens of the dungeon knows, better to stay far away, the more colorful and shiny it seems. Only those who has stone for a brain, would comes close to it, or those who actually knows the dangers but still seeks it. 

Oscar was currently watching the type, who actively seeks these colorful flowers. 50cm wide, having a normal but sturdy Hornet body, and the mesmerizing wings of a butterfly, bright golden and black patterns dotted around it. The creature was busy in sucking the poison, storing it in itself. 

Having eaten them countless times, till he starts getting nauseous just from their sight. Oscar has unlocked a detailed review of its species. And not surprisingly, he hadn't eaten their poison sacs once. His new 'Butcherer Lv7' skill, using up all his remaining SP from the next three level ups, had helped a lot in avoiding it, while also becoming his number one skill in locating any useful material from a monsters body, reducing the wastage. And unlike 'StripLv5' he gets a whooping +4 in agility and an additional +2 in strength, making it more than worthwhile. 

Reeling back from praising on his choice of skill. Oscar saw the greedy butterfly piercing its mouth-needle too deep, activating the trap; cutting the thin strand, acting as the stopper, inside of it. The long-time-dead-flower flings around the tree trunk, hurling the already stucked hornyfly -named by the goblin himself- circling the tree before crashing it with a bone-breaking force, resulting it in its inevitable death. 

Strangely, Oscar didn't gets the annoying series of notifications. But he knows the reason behind. 

'Urgh! Why didn't I stands a little more closely' he missed the chance of getting the 'level up on-hold' text, yet again. 

If a creature dies from a trap, without the trap-owner nearby. They won't get the credit behind it. Instead, the credit would be transferred to the closest creature it was before it died. It's a verified theory of the scholar-goblin, who had seen it happening with his own very eyes; the two trapped monsters. One died, other survived. Gettting the credit its dead partner leaves behind. It gets leveled up and a bonus heal, breaking the bindings more vigorously before making a run for it. Leaving its frustrated preprator, arriving a second late to grind his teeth. 

Oscar has yet to check his same theory with archery. But being a beginner, he couldn't aim without shooting his bow along with the arrow. 

Liberating the dead horny-flys body from its confines. The master-hunter buried it underground with his swiftly moving pickaxes, like a trained worker. And marking it further, for the identification he would need in his return trip. 

Done with reinstalling the trap. The hard-working goblin wiped his sweat, moving ahead to check the next harvested goods.

                                                         

"Already eaten?!" 

Exasperated at the brazen monsters. Shamelessly stealing his prey. He kicks the remains it leaves behind, or more like it couldn't reach. 

'Sigh... Nowadays monsters are getting too bold, too bold' shaking his head, he lamented of his early days. 

Undoing the hook, clasped at the suspected eaten monsters legs hoof, he throws it away. Oscar then resets and puts the deadly trap down, just below the dead-tree in a barren spot whose water remains had long dried up; thus, unceremoniously becoming a public/monsters bathroom. To better rephrase it, a green zone of non-violence where monsters can relax themselves in peace, but an unscrupulous-goblin has no qualms in placing his deadly traps right there. 

Truly an act of evil. 

"Sigh... Already afternoon? Lets get this done with" 

Getting the signal from his growling stomach, Oscar hoped to the next location. Set-on-eating any trapped monster he would find first. 

                                                            

Moving through the winding caverns. Oscar founds himself at a narrow tunnel, narrow enough to be called a baby in front of its other counterparts. 20m in height, 5m wide, connecting two bigger caverns in a straight line, it looked much like a shortcut between them. 

Oscar examined his installed trap: a square-shaped pitfall, having the depth of almost 5m. Stone spikes stands erect at the bottom, to skewer any unsuspecting monster with their fall. An equally square-shaped rotating swing-lid was placed at the top. Blending well with the surrounding uneven floor, making it hard to get noticed through a single glance. 

"Emptee..." 

Kicking the clay-lid. The goblin failed to notice any captured monster inside. Worse, he had yet to see it catch anything from the day it was completed. It was a recent trap he designed, and made it using up more than half his mana stone stock on moulding and shaping it 'And it took my whole day to complete it' he suddenly felt cheated. Wasting time and resources, with no gains. 

'Hmm... Where is the problem then... Ah!' 

He contemplated, before suddenly noticing the trap only covered barely 2m of the pathway. Leaving easily more than enough, to by pass around it. Evidently lowering its already low chance to caught anyone, who may chanced upon this shortcut. 

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'Why didn't I think of it before?' 

And so, being a big-brained-goblin. He starts blocking the other half of the pathway. Leaving the only path to cross the shortcut tunnel, and also the path to their doom... 

"Khe! Khe! Khe!"

With a silly smile. He glides the modified wand- 'Clay-Might' orb at top for use, the Mana stones at base for fuel- along the straight line. Before changing the orbs, a fiery red for 'Fierum-Strike' and a milky white for 'Air-Influx'. 

It didn't took long as some stone stalagmites, hanging at the top, dropped with the aimed blast to their base, cutting them off. Dropping and triggering the laid out body defensive spell, that rarely ever used as intended in the goblins hand. The magic mud-wall instantly covered their surface, or as much as they could. Hardening and solidifying it in a moment, locking them still in one place. After that, the miner decorated It through his pickaxes. Making the blockade look as natural as his lazyass could do. 

"Fuuu...this hunger is killing me" Catching his breath. The cheap painter appraised his ugly-painting with affection. 

'Truly a work of art. Now this better catch some juicy monster meat. Or else, I will sell it to the dungeon' not that the dungeon need his permission, if it wants. 

                                                         

Advancing to the location, he knew would catch some prey. Oscar hungrily came closer to the location where the water source is abundant, and greenery looked much like a little forest. It was also a sort-of common ground, where the greenery wasn't occupied by a single thug, but a cross-section between many many thugs that gets changes on a daily basis. 

"Grrrreeee..." 

Invigorated by the wailings of a helpless monster. The goblin picked-up his pace. 

In a matter of seconds. He quickly came closer to the location his trap was located, and felt glad, the wailing is still continuing. But the closer he gets, the more louder the wailings get. The closer he listens to, the clearly he makes out the growlings That suddenly transformed to thunderous roars. Threatening to rip his ears out. 

'Looks like it caught a big catch eh...' He thought in amusement, trying to hide his growing anxiety. But pulled by his curiosity, he proceeds. 

A fiercely looking majestic big-cat, having red and black fur, patterned like a tiger, and the mane of a lion; The red glows with an ethereal hue, mildly-blazing in and out of existence. The black, smoldered his 4m long figure in a formless smoke, following and hiding his every movement. Its eight legs, each side grouped as a pair, supported its body to stand 2m tall. The tail swings, balancing its body, giving him a great maneuverability. All in all, it was a creature that must be appreciated from a distance. Which the goblin agreed without a thought. 

But currently, one of its hindlegs was struck in an unsuspected rope; stretching upwards, going over the 6m branch before coming down and underground a distance away. Practically half-lifting it above, but couldn't pull the complete weight. 

'Eh!... Serves you right' smirking. He felt odly proudful, seeing that arrogant cat jumping and fumbling around like a cat it is. He had an innate hate against anyone who can use magic by birth in this dungeon. And especially so, when it was a monster stronger than him, which technically Includes everyone. 

"GRRRRRAAAAAAA!!!" 

Done with playing around. The bastard-child-of-lion-and-a-tiger makes a big swing, latching its four front paws to the cactus tree trunk. Nimbly climbing above with no difficulty it was showing earlier. And it won't be long before it set itself free from the little blunder it had stepped into, out of morbid-curiosity. Planning to start its todays dinner with the one it already smelled near its vicinity, as it casually glanced the general direction it sensed from. Mortifying the dinner In question. 

'Fuck!' Cursing his bad luck. The goblin shuts the alarms blaring inside his mind, caused by that monsters casual glance. He doesn't know how it finds his location, maybe he forgot to hide the smell or his 'SneakLv10' suddenly dropped in level? Or maybe the level difference between them was too vast, that it outright ignored his defenses... That would be worrying, horrifying even. 

Forgetting about his hunger. The scared goblin hastily pulls out his ugly gauntlet, named "the-Escapinator" Which does as the name implies, Escape! 

"Quish!"

"Shiiiii..."

In a moment of distraction, the big cat suddenly felt something gets past its perception, so rapidly it failed to even see it. And the smell of that 'maybe-dinner' Vanished all the same. Shrugging, It reached the top branch and cuts the rope with a casual bite. Sitting lazily, the Royal cat lets it's rump to gets warm as it waited for another 'maybe-dinner' to crossed its path. Snoozing in a second, it lets its whiskers do the work, in detecting any mana movements near it. 

                                                       

70m above the floor level, one can see the whole region of the cavern -hardly circular in shape- where numerously numbered, enormous corridors lined the every edges of it, leading further to more straighter in length caverns. Making it a hub of sort, where a mis-mash of greenery around a dozen ponds or so, covered the centeral area. And among them, a small spot can be seen where a red black cat- who looks more like a mouse from up above- idly lazing around for no good reason. 

Clinging desperately to his life, at the ceiling. Oscar adjusted his posture. Managing to finally rolling the sticky tongue back inside the gauntlet. 

'Urgh... That's why I hate using it, but it saves again, so can't really complain about it'  He would have shrugged, if he wasn't holding to a pillar for his dear life. 

                                                       

Hands gets tired, if it stays in a constant tension. And more so when your timer was a big cat, doing nothing but sleeping. 

'Fuck... How long would I need to stay here... Eh?' 

To his surprise, he didn't even have to wait more than ten breaths for someone to disrupt this stalemate. The big-cat got some adventure. The human adventurers, coming from one of the corridors while talking and laughing among them. 

But that wasn't what caught his attention. In his initial business of rolling back the sticky tongue, by his legs, and clinging through his hands. Oscar failed to notice that he already had someones company, or more like something. 

Lots and lots, of something. 

Sticking out from the base of spiraling shaped upside down cones -blending within the countless small and big, dull ash grey stalagmites- a dark, wrinkly, eerily human shaped torso can be seen sleeping peacefully, glued to the ceilings base. 

Disturbed from their slumber, its two antennas abruptly stands up with a "pop" Sound. Opening its two black eyes at the sudden guest in its territory... Correction, their Territory. As some dozen pair of eyes, all focused at the goblin who miraculously appeared right between them. 

"Ahem! Bonjour?" 

The uninvited guest smiles, nervously.

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