Chapter 29: 27- Run On All Fours

Oscar wasn't an engineer in his previous life, but he does love to make things as hobby. But now, he couldn't say so. 

It was more of an obsession than a simple hobby to him, as of now. 

Oscar initially picked back his hobby, in this life, to relieve some stress. Being a weak and lone goblin in a dungeon isn't easy. Moreover, he had nothing better to do other than worry about his bleak future. Whenever he's not running for his life or fighting to take others' lives, he would try to build things that would make his already hard life easy.

At first, he made some simple day-to-day life things; like making a container to drink his favorite cocktail of blood anywhere and anytime he wants, then making a lift for him to carry the corpses of monsters bigger than him to his cave. And then he diverted his hobby to make things that would save his life, first and foremost, resulting in the birth of the earliest prototype of "Mr.Escapinator" 

Built on the corpses of more than a dozen boxing-frog monsters: a species that relied on punching and catching their prey faster than a mantis could ever dream. They have to spit their thick tongue so fast that a simple muscle wouldn't be able to handle the strain, and so, they used the mana muscles to achieve the speed which would knock their prey at first upon impact, before pulling back the entire body with their sticky tongue and swallowing it whole, down their poisonous gullet.

Oscar would beat anyone to death should they say, he had it easy because of the [Trap-Alignment] skill. In fact, the skill didn't help him at all in the initial journey. 

He encountered countless problems throughout the process, of which, the first and the hardest step was to take control of the monster core and make it do things like when it was alive. This single step took a whole week of Oscar and a lot of frustration before he could find the solution, which he named "the universal mo-core theory" In which, he could control any and all monster cores indirectly through their different glands. But even after that, he faced more issues like reducing the speed of the throw to make it stick rather than smash through the target's surface, how to aim properly and how to absorb the recoil better…and many more. 

At first, Oscar would easily get frustrated and beat the shit outta those failed prototypes before throwing them down the cave. But after he finds the first solution, he gets to feel such elevation and the joy that was much better, and more addictive than the artificial massage he gets from each skill level ups. 

And before Oscar noticed, he was already obsessed over finding out the pattern one single Monster-Core could make with different glands and muscles. Every experiment would leave his workshop in a more perilous situation than before, solving one problem and creating ten others became a routine for him. 

And right now, the uncertified engineer was giving all the experience he gained in his whole goblin life, which wasn't longer than a chinese product's warranty, into one single thing. 

Putting his very soul, and a lot of sweat in the place of his precious blood. 

"Ghaa! I'm waiting for ages Jazz, what took you this long?" Screams the broken voice recorder of a child. 

Wiping his sweat, the Goblin Prince stops pretending to be busy hammering a bone, entirely unrelated to the project. While making all the other monsters work their ass off in his place, already behaving like a true Prince working with commoners. 

"Urgh!... Ahhhh!" 

Taking each step forward with great difficulty. The Hob-Goblin pulls the cart carrying a gigantic head of a red-scaled dinosaur with majestic curved horns, looking rather like a dragon's head from a distance. 

"Haaa…" Releasing the cord, Jazz huffed and puffed for air. His condition is a telltale of how much that demonic head weighs… even without the added weight. 

"Jazz… where's Roly and the others, don't tell me you've lost them in a few hours I took my eyes off them… Che! Che! How come you have become a Hob-Goblin without learning to discipline some unruly lesser goblins" 

Shaking his head in disappointment, said the lesser goblin himself. 

"No… My Prince… they're… pushing the cart… from behind-?" 

Realizing something, Jazz walked behind the cart immediately and found the missing goblins -four frail looking and one with a round belly- taking a nap within the cover of the draconic head while their own luggage lay beside them; consequently adding the already heavy load of the cart, which he had been pulling on from who knows how long.

"Che! Che! You still have much to learn Jazz" Pitying the Hob-Goblin for underestimating a goblin's cunningness on petty things. Oscar, who already knows all the stunts these green runts could pull behind the back, even though he had been with his fellow brothers for just a few days, decided to help him out. 

"Ahem!... AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHaaaaaaa-! Cough! Cough! Cough!"

He screams like a banshee, making use of the actual purpose of [Dummy Voice] for once before he starts coughing out blood. Forgetting the 2-second time limit on Sonic attacks, his modified voice is box ripped apart by overexertion. But he still achieved what he ought to do. 

"Ghaaaa!" All five of them woke up to bleeding ears, and a pained expression. And before they could claw and rip apart that monster who dared to pull this painful prank, they felt a looming shadow hanging over their head. 

*Bang!*

"Ghe?!" A punch to the face, broke their nose. A slap to the head, caused them to faint. A kick to their bump, make them scream. All in all, it was a beating that would make them not to slack off behind a Hob-Goblin… probably. 

Leaving behind the spanking Hob-Goblin, Oscar ordered others to dislodge the gigantic jaws off the cart. It was of an Lv42 monster, told by the most and the only knowledgeable Hob-Goblin, Most probably killed by the joint attack of the current residents of this cavern. And founded by Oscar, when he was making a round trip on checking how many traps have left undamaged after Puppet Snake runs over them.

From Jazz, The uneducated goblin got to know many things, such as; the average level limits of the dungeon monsters in each strata- 10 for 1st, 20 for 2nd, 30 for 3rd, and 50 for the 1st Echelon, without considering the monster's Grade. And how it all depends entirely on the amount of mana and the blood of the dungeon. 

Jazz didn't or more like he couldn't describe what this blood he's talking about, his mind-voice gets obstructed whenever he tries to explain. 

But he did pointed to the ponds, which exist in every small greenery in each cavern, whenever he tried to explain this so-called blood. Prompting him to understand, that this foul smelled water is the blood he's talking about. And the way one can open a gate to any Strata of the dungeon if they gathered enough of it within themselves; Thus, making the ignorant goblin realize why every strong monster tried to take a hold of the ponds, and how a monster can continue living even after accumulating countless wounds in each day. 

As for the Hob-Goblin himself, he had enough to safely open a gate to any three of the Stratas interlinked with the 1st Echelon. But he couldn't take others with him; hence, the group had to take the public gate to pass through which, all of them are in the restricted zones. This Means, they're already overflowing with the 30+Lv monsters and none of them are even 25+Lv, not even Jazz the Hob-Goblin. 

"Phuuu! Yuck! Blergh!" 

Spitting the water, smelling worse than a monkey ear wax, Oscar takes yet another try to drink it without vomiting it. Pinching his nose, and closing his eyes, he parted his lips and took a swing from the recycled flask. The water hadn't even passed through his tongue when the urge to vomit filled his mind, the taste was horrible enough to make him gargle with a powdered stone twice. Suppressing it all, he straight-up swallowed it in one go.

*gulp!*

*glup!*

"Brubda?!" 

Vigorously shaking his head, Oscar felt his stomach bubbling like a volcano. 

In the next second, a burst of waves overwhelmed his body. Making him feel hyperactive and overly energetic like he could run faster without tiring himself. It wasn't the same sensation as the [Cavemen Aggression], his strength didn't increase, nor did any of the attributes. It was as the prompt said, faster stamina, and longer endurance with a free heal in health and mana as a bonus. But since he didn't have internal Mana circuitry, he didn't get the benefits of it.

"Ahhhhh! Let's do it!"

Jumping like a spring, the Goblin cheered with the not-so-distant monsters roaring in the background. 

The Mana veins have long started to pulse with an ominous buzzing light, signaling the upcoming waves is but minutes away. 

The now enlarged vortexes, spreading every nook and cranny of the cavern, have started to crack like eggshells before the upcoming burst. 

The existing monsters, who have been killing any and all migrating monsters by making a rare monster alliance between themselves, know they're fighting a losing war, and soon, they would also be driven away just like them. 

The uneasiness has spread far and wide. 

Everyone is restless, the tension is palpable, Fearing what the future holds for them, or whether they even have a future or not. 

And between all these is a group of monsters, hiding in a corner, cheering and jeering while following the lead of a Psycho Goblin in making something they didn't understand, nor do they care about. They're just satisfied enough to not get whipped by that demonic Hob-Goblin, protecting a lesser Goblin like a watch-dog. 

                                                            

"The dinosaur head?" With a stone tablet in hand, the supervisor shouted. 

Closing the jaws of the well adjusted-head. Roly, the goblin with a round belly, gives a thumbs-up and a smile, revealing his two broken teeth and a swelled-up face. 

*tak!* comes the tick, besides the head sign. 

"Eight frog monster heads?" 

Moving his neck. The supervisor found a baby boxing-frog monster giving its final respect to the Lv23 severed frog heads, piled up in a corner by the Hob-Goblin himself, before raising its one hand as a thumbs-up at him. 

*tak!* 

"Skinned Balloon monster?"

In a corner, two goblins with red butt cheeks could be found making a horse-shaped balloon and another a goblinoid shaped with an overly elongated penis before matching and laughing among themselves. While a tattered and wasted skin of a deflated monster could be seen to their side… 

*Pak!* 

*Pak!*

*Tak!* slapping them away, the supervisor sighed. Crossing one box out of ten. 

"2 buckets of dried clay?"

Like it was waiting for its turn, a tortoise with a super flexible and elongated neck dragged its shell with three monster skull-buckets and a fluffy ball forward. Giving a permanent creepy smile, it put them aside and flapped its limbs when Oscar patted his back. 

*tak!* smiling to himself, the supervisor felt good for finally improving his bond with his now willing pets 

'If only Pie chan would also become this responsive' thought the pet owner. While patting the corpse of a python, hanging around his neck, with a smile…

                                                            

"Bone cables?" Came, the next checklist. 

*Rororo!* While running on hind legs, a baby squirrel pushed ahead a bone, ten times its own size, with sticky muscles protruding out from either side of it. Behind her came the helper goblin, carrying all tens of these and sweating buckets with each step while barely balancing himself. 

"There, there. Such a hard-working cute little monster you are… and you!" Pointing at the tired skinny goblin behind, he shouted "Just learn something from her-ouch!" 

Biting the hand that was patting her, the squirrel ran behind the skinny goblin before giving a hateful glare at Oscar. 

"Traitor!" Accusing her. Oscar promised to skin that goblin alive who dared to steal his long-lasting pets -emergency food- away from him. 

"2 buckets, monkey ear wax-Blurgh!?" 

He hadn't even finished his words before a horrible stench permeated the air around him. Two four-armed monkeys dropped four buckets of Greasley yellow pus right in front of everyone, making them all gag non-stop. Even the foul-smelling 5inch long bug couldn't resist it. 

*tak!* 

"Take it… blurgh!... Away! Blurgh!"

                                                             

"A large wooden box?" Turning around, he didn't find any monster eagerly hoping for him this time. 

"A large wooden box?" Repeating himself, he still didn't see anyone. Annoyed, he was about to order his big green dog to bring that daring monster in front of him when he heard an angry growl and a heavy sledge dragging over the ground. 

"Whhhhhaff!" 

A deep growl, a stout body with two hammer-like front big legs, looking more like hands, came the muscular monster while pulling a big sledge -the size of a bus- behind through biting the cable. Its every step was heavy as its frown, its viscous tusk grinds as if to crush the cable. 

"Whaaafff!" 

Dropping the sledge near the little supervisor. The monster with a bulldog-like face and a gorilla-like body barked loudly. While glaring intensely at Oscar with an angry frown, as if it would jump at him with a moment's notice. Causing the green bodyguard to tense in the background. 

"Good boy" Smiling, Oscar gives it a treat of a bone like it was any normal dog. 

This would have been dangerous, should the monster be any taller than the Oscars knee-cap, and the monster isn't waving its tail behind… 

Having all the equipment in one place, Oscar and the team moved to the 2nd phase. 

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Now it will be a race against time as even his team members had gone quiet, sharing the same sentiment as those other monsters in the dungeon. 

Oscar has never felt the dungeon this quiet, no more monster roars and hooting in the background, and no more unnecessary brawls shaking the dungeon grounds. It's almost like they have gone collectively into hiding. While holding their breath tight, waiting and preparing for the upcoming storm. Leaving the dungeon empty and desolate, where one couldn't even hear a flap of a bat within miles.

                                                             

"Harry, stop getting scared and give me the number-3 hammer!" 

Laying within the open jaws of the red-scaled dinosaur, Oscar works on its inner mechanics. Placing its own sharpest canine in its palate, he hammered it non-stop, making way for the artificial Mana cables to come out. 

The jaws were thoroughly cleaned of any monster's former viscous saliva, and the tongue had been rolled back leaving a large empty cavity and sharp rows of teeth inside of it. 

The gears and cogs -stone discs covered by a monster spine around the edges, acting as the cog- filled every corner of it, forming an intricate yet crudely interlinked mechanical infra-structure, attached to the four moving wheels installed at the bottom of the reptiles' lower jaws on each side. 

"Ghaaa…" Fumbling over the rows of hammers and other equipment looking too identical, because they indeed are, the crooked-ear hastily passed a random hammer. Watching silently as the stillness in the air gets disturbed by their team members' constant hammering and tinkering of various bone and stone hardware. Nobody in the dungeon is making a sound, let alone creating an oddly rhythmic tune in tandem like a live performance of a music band 

*Tak!*

*Tik!*

The bull-dog monster hammered the loudest.

Bashing the edges of the bus-size wooden sledge, it forcefully attached two wooden logs at the bottom with upside-down V-shaped supports in between, acting as the suspension of the wooden buggy. 

*Click!~*

*Clock!~*

Four goblins worked with the bull-dog. Two pairs, standing on either sides of it, installed the 1m stone discs within the wooden-logs as the rim of the wheels. Before engulfing each discs with the balloon monster hide, belonging to a puffer monster that gets inflated upon impact. Hence, gaining the immunity against all melee attacks, and the perfect material for making tubeless tyres without a cost.

*Phlip!~*

*flop!~*

The smiling tortoise chews on the dried rocks, as his clay molding skill works on overdrive, it spits the mixture around the edges of the wheels-base. After hardening, it will stop the wheel from dislodging itself away from the axle. 

*Tuki!~*

*Tak!*

Another pair of goblins hammered a 75cm long and 5inch thick bone into the connector, linking both the buggy and the Modified dinosaur's neck bone. All the while, Adding their own beats with the others, collectively making odd yet energizing up-beats.

*Tock!~*

*Tick!~*

Hammering persistently, the orchestra master bends and curves a pair of bones. 

*Fruu~*

*Friiii~*

Picking the fluffy monster, the master of all welded them both through the intense heat, blown by the ball of fiery fluff, before repeating the same motion with the next pair, and the next so with the many others. All the while, interlocking them all the same. And at last, four short interlocked chains of bones came to existence. 

*Clink!~*

*Clock!~*

The heavy muscled Jazz picked all these four chains and hoisted them around the gears of each wheel with the gears of the trapezoid Engine, affixed into the hollow lower jaws cavity. Strapping both the left wheels and, the chains of the right wheels onto the Engines cylindrical projected gears, side by side in a linear direction. 

*Squeak!~*

*Queek~*

Roly, the round belly goblin, had eaten the two large eye-balls clean, gaining a big chunk of GP -Gene Aliment Points- but strangely leaving the lens without a stain. That was taken by Oscar, the up-and-coming engineer, and tapped around the hollow eyes of the draconic head, using the pinball monster, acting as the windshield of the vehicle. 

*Splish!~*

*Spalsh!~*

And then came the painters. A pair of four-armed monkeys dipping all their hands into the ear-wax coated the engines each and every gear and cogs, wheels adjoined to the box and the constructed reptilian's head. Even the connector, pinning both the buggy and the vehicle's head, was bathed in the horrible stench making everyone take a step back.

*BBBBOOOOM!*

*KHRRRrrraaaa!*

Expectedly or unexpectedly, a deep booming noise reverberated far and wide. Accompanied by an earth-quack, dangerous enough to break any boulder and throw off every monster standing on two legs. And yes, three or more legged monsters are immune to it. 

Smashing the stillness and breaking the rhythm of mishmashed monsters assembling a car inside a dungeon, the earth tremors throw everyone off balance and away from the assembly line. While the sharp edged stalactites, hanging at the roof, broke and dropped straight at the supposed dream car of the goblin.

"My Carrr!" 

Oscar screamed, terrified of seeing large boulder-sized stalactites dropping on top of his yet-to-be-finished dream car. But before it could drop down, ruining his work in a second, the goblin changed its profession from engineer to angry wizard. Fring and blasting the boulders to bits and pieces with well-practiced aiming and perception, born out of fighting with the annoying gliding bats for days. 

"Fuck you! boulder And you all! Move!" Threatening any monsters who dared to run in the time of adversity, abandoning him. Oscar hastily yet carefully ran towards the car and opened its bonnet, lifting the now bone-turned mechanical jaws. He saw the eight ball sockets in the heart of the Engine are still empty. 

"Ah…huh!" 

Cursing at himself for not putting the main Engine and the fuel first hand, Oscar turned towards the piled-up corpses of frog monsters at the corner. He couldn't even waste time screaming at others. Running with all his might, Oscar took out the [Whites Bane] and cut the boxing-frog monster's throats, bathing himself with their blood and gore. He roughly shoved his hands into them and pulled out their monster cores before swiftly tugging them inside his clothes. All the while, signaling others to board the back carriage. 

"To the carrr!" 

But, even his modified voice failed to overcome the uproars rumbling in the background, and near him?... 

"Huh?!"

*Crack! -Bang!*

Behind him, four revolving vortexes joined together and formed a giant gate before cracking apart, The second the whole network of Mana-veins pulsates with a dazzlingly bright light. Releasing a demonic dog over a stupefied goblin.

*Crunch!* 

"Prince!"

Its four heads strained within the yet-to-be-formed gate as they all snapped their vicious jaws at the nearest monster they smelled at once, only to crunch some already dead frog monster corpses in their bite. 

"Hap!" Rolling and tumbling on the still shaking ground. Oscar glanced at the monstrosity behind him. The four 10m dark muzzles, stained with the blood and gore revealing a jagged row of teeth, and a cactus-like tongue, snapped continuously at anything they could reach, the boulders, the trees, the air, and the goblin… their eyes locked for a second before all four of the heads howled with a ravenous hunger that shakes the very core of the departing goblin.

Raising it's struggle against the gate more vigorously, the demonic cerebus broke loose the second the glowing veins pulsed again, with enough mana to push each and every new monster onto the dungeon. Breaking all hells within it's confines. 

*WAAAAEEEERRRRR!*

All the monsters in the whole dungeon, collectively yet understandably… run. 

They forgot they even had home to defend. All they have is the will to live, and the fear of getting left behind with the countless monsters well and above Lv40. That may increase with the next breath of the dungeon, pushing more and more of these monstrosities on top of them.

*Boom! Boom! Boom!*

Oscar didn't even take a glance at the uniform stampede of the monsters, because he knows they were coming in his direction. And if he didn't get the fuck outta here within a second, he and his team wouldn't be any different than toothpaste splattered on the ground. 

"Ah…huh!" 

In his mindless haste. Oscar forgot which monster core is of which level, making it impossible to differentiate between them and put them in the corresponding gear sockets. While a stampeding of monsters and a four headed cerberus was slowly casting their shadow above his head. 

"Sigh… here goes nothing"

Damning the gears combination, the goblin just stuffed all the cores into any socket his hands reached first. Locking them all inside the heart of the engine safely, he shut the bonnet with a heavy thud!

And ran to the door at the back. While stumbling twice out of nervousness he had never felt before, not even when he ran from the Stoney snake, nor from the rat king. At those times, he had nothing planned for his future, but now he really wanted to act like a Prince and order his ministers to summon all the virgin girls in the kingdom inside his chambers… for reason better left unsaid. 

"Prince! Here!"

Taking Jazz's hands, Oscar jumps through the side window -the former ears of the monster- rather than the gate. And pulls down the lever at the dashboard without letting himself take any breath, because if the restlessness of his team in the buggy is of any indication then his monster fans are about to catch him and will collectively kiss him with their feet. 

"Please… please… start… start…" 

Praying to all the gods. Oscar puts his hands over the gear stick and channels the raw mana from the supplementary tank, containing the last few bits of mana stones, into the muscle cables; like any electric plug would kick start the engine. Agitating the glands of the frog monsters resting somewhere in the bonnet, the cable structure then carried the signals into the engine where the monster core -the actual fuel and the engine- was installed. 

*Boom!*

*Boom!*

*Khhhhrrraaaaaaa!*

The cerberus ran and leaped to bite the skull on wheels with a wooden buggy, carrying all those tasty meat. And all this time, the engineer hoped from the bottom of his heart that the monster cores would respond like it would in an actual living frog monster body. Rolling the tongue, strapped to the rotors in a loop, and the roll… it did. 

*SCRRREEEIIIIIIIIIII!*

Throwing all the passengers aback, the Super-car starts straight at the seventh gear -powered by the second highest frog monster core- courtesy of him mindlessly throwing off the cores in random sockets. The demonic car with majestic side horns blasted ahead like a bullet through the barrel. Leaving behind the Cerebus to crash against the ground, and to eat the dirt thrown by the rapidly rolling wheels to its face. 

"Rolllls… Royce!" Screams the goblin at the top of his lungs, hands busy stabilizing the -Spine made- steering wheel, trying not to crash his first ever car against any trees or random stalactites dropping like bombs on top of them. 

The goblin only read the first half of the prompt, and failed to read the rare praise shown by the dungeon for his work. 

*Boom!*

*WHHHHHAAAA!*

Behind them came the four-headed roaring cerberus with their opened and hungry muzzled, and the stampede of monsters making the whole cave shake continuously. They all marched towards the four-wheeled dinosaur's skull pulling a buggy with a monster party at back. 

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