Chapter 52

Chapter 52

It was a scene that could only be described as having been swept through by a sandstorm. Otherwise, there was no way to explain the sight unfolding before their eyes.

Zahar and his team members got down from their Bactrian Camels and entered the Goblin settlement.

They saw Goblin corpses half-buried in sand.

The Goblins were in a truly wretched state.

As if a sandstorm had scraped over their skin, half of their skin and muscles had been torn away, and their organs had spilled out, staining the sand a dark red.

Perhaps because they had felt extreme fear and pain until the moment of death, the Goblins’ faces were hideously twisted.

“What the hell happened here?”

Zahar placed his hand on a Goblin corpse.

He could still feel warmth.

“They haven’t been dead for even an hour.”

“You’re saying this happened in barely an hour? Then we should have seen the sandstorm too.”

Felix wore an expression of disbelief.

The sandstorms that occasionally blew through the desert destroyed everything.

Only those who had experienced it knew the terror of a sandstorm approaching as it filled the horizon.

No matter how remarkable an Awakened was, if they were swept up in a massive sandstorm, there was no guarantee they would survive.

Before a great natural disaster, one could realize just how insignificant humans were.

The problem was that if a sandstorm of that scale had blown, there was no way Zahar and his team members would not have known.

No matter how much the enormous sand dunes had blocked their view, if it had been a sandstorm powerful enough to swallow the entire Goblin settlement, there was no way they would not have seen it.

“What the hell is this?”

“What in the world happened?”

The team members looked around with confused expressions.

There were no living Goblins to be seen.

There had been more than a thousand Goblins, yet not a single one had survived.

It was a situation that their common sense simply could not comprehend.

Mandy knelt on one knee and examined a Goblin corpse.

The Goblin she was looking at was not an ordinary individual.

“It’s a Hobgoblin.”

A Hobgoblin was stronger than dozens of ordinary Goblins put together.

Some of them even possessed special Skills.

They were strong enough that Awakened below Grade E could not stand against them.

Such a powerful individual had died horribly.

All of its flesh had been torn away, and even the exposed bones were smooth, as if they had been ground with sandpaper.

No matter how she looked at it, the wounds did not seem as if they had been caused by a natural sandstorm.

On top of that, there was the light of terror still remaining in the Hobgoblin’s wide-open eyes.

Mandy frowned without realizing it.

“If it was a Hobgoblin, it should have been able to avoid a sandstorm. It isn’t as if this thing would have stayed behind because it had some sense of comradeship with the village either. I don’t know. What the hell happened here?”

She nervously scratched her head.

That was when it happened.

“Team Leader! There are survivors here.”

Seido called Zahar in an urgent voice.

At that, Mandy and the others ran toward Seido.

Seido pointed at the ground and said to them,

“It looks like an underground prison.”

“A prison?”

It was when Zahar looked down at the ground.

“Save us!”

“Get us out of here!”

Faint human voices came from underground.

They were clearly the voices of people, not Goblins.

Zahar shouted urgently,

“Hurry and dig out the sand.”

“Yes!”

The team members rushed in without hesitation and began digging out the sand.

When the Awakened joined forces, they were able to clear away more than one meter of sand in an instant. Then the ceiling of a stone prison became visible.

Darren struck the ceiling of the prison with his fist.

BAANG!

With an explosive roar, the ceiling broke apart, and the faces of the people tied up inside became visible.

Zahar recognized their faces.

“Rotten, Jack!”

The man named Rotten was Team 2’s leader, and Jack was a team member.

Both were martial-type Awakened with skill that could not be underestimated.

They looked up at Zahar with their arms and legs bound.

They had been beaten so badly that their faces were black with bruises and swollen beyond recognition.

Team 7 hurriedly pulled the two up and untied their restraints.

Zahar asked Rotten,

“What happened?”

“We were ambushed. Those cowardly Goblin bastards laid traps and waited for us.”

“What about the other team members?”

“They’re all dead. Those bastards ate them.”

“Mm!”

“We nearly got eaten too, without even being able to move.”

Rotten shuddered as if just imagining it was horrific.

Jack’s face was also filled with fear.

The Goblins had killed and eaten their comrades right before their eyes.

The sight of a person being torn apart alive and disappearing into a Goblin’s mouth had left them with trauma that could never be erased.

Even for Awakened, who lived close to death, it was extremely rare to experience the sight of a comrade being eaten.

Mandy asked Rotten,

“What about the sandstorm?”

“Huh?”

“What happened to the sandstorm?”

“I don’t know! It suddenly blew in and struck the Goblin settlement.”

“Suddenly?”

“We were just about to be eaten too, so we were out of our minds. We didn’t have the time to look around. But when we came to our senses, a huge sandstorm had swallowed the Goblin settlement.”

“You didn’t sense any signs of it?”

“That’s right!”

At Rotten’s answer, Mandy’s frown deepened.

She had no interest in how Rotten had survived. Her concern was why the Goblin settlement had ended up like this.

Then Rotten spoke carefully.

“I don’t know if I was out of my mind for a moment, but back then, I think I heard a human voice.”

“What?”

“I think I faintly heard a human voice inside the sandstorm.”

“A human voice? Are you sure?”

“I can’t be certain. Like I said, I wasn’t in my right mind then.”

Rotten wore an uncertain expression.

Zahar said,

“That’s enough interrogation. He isn’t a prisoner.”

“All right.”

“We’re taking Rotten and Jack back to the shelter.”

At Zahar’s order, the team members led Rotten and Jack out of the Goblin settlement.

Mandy fell to the rear and looked back at the Goblin settlement buried in sand.

They had rescued Rotten and Jack, but there were still many unresolved questions.

“Maybe it’s still too early for humans to advance this far......”

---

The shelter built by the Pathfinder teams was located in a sandstone region.

They had built the shelter in an area of sandstone, where sand had hardened into rock over long years.

The shelter, made from materials specially developed by Neo Seoul, was fifty meters wide, fifty meters long, and five meters high.

There were no individual rooms inside the shelter, which had been made by assembling bulkheads brought in on trucks.

It was literally a temporary dwelling, so there was no reason to build it in a complicated way.

On one side inside the shelter, more than ten huge trucks were parked.

Technicians were inspecting trucks damaged by sand, and on the other side, Awakened were moving busily.

That was when Team 7 entered the shelter.

Zahar shouted,

“Team 2 has been hit. Hurry and look after them.”

“What?”

“Damn it!”

The Awakened rushed over.

Two Healers attached themselves to Rotten and Jack and treated them.

Team Leader 1 asked Zahar,

“What happened? Why Team 2?”

“They said they were ambushed by a Goblin horde.”

“They were defeated by mere Goblins?”

“It was a large tribe with more than a thousand of them. Even if it had been Team 1 instead of Team 2, the result would not have been different.”

“There really were more than a thousand Goblins gathered together?”

“I confirmed it with my own eyes.”

At Zahar’s answer, Team Leader 1’s expression turned grave.

“This is insane. To think a thousand Goblins were gathered together.”

There were no Goblin groups this large near Neo Seoul.

No matter how low-ranked a monster was, if a thousand of them gathered, they became a serious threat, so they were always subjugated in advance.

Team Leader 1 was also an experienced Awakened, but he had never seen a Goblin horde numbering a thousand.

“A Goblin army that large? This is driving me insane!”

Fundamentally, Goblins were monsters belonging to the lowest rank.

Although they displayed powerful force when they formed groups, it was difficult for a group to form beyond a certain size.

That was because before they could gather into a force, they became prey for other monsters.

Goblins were beings at the very bottom of the monster ecosystem. They were busy fleeing from the attacks of other gigantic monsters.

Because of that, despite their tremendous reproductive ability, it was difficult for them to form a large army. Yet in this place, there had been a huge settlement where no less than a thousand lived.

It meant this was an environment favorable for Goblins to breed.

Noticing Team Leader 1’s concern, Zahar said,

“Fortunately, a sandstorm struck the Goblin settlement and wiped them all out.”

“What?”

“It may sound absurd, but it’s true. I confirmed it with my own eyes.”

“If that’s true, then that’s fortunate.”

It was just as Team Leader 1 belatedly let out a sigh of relief.

THUD!

Suddenly, the shelter shook violently.

“What is it?”

“What’s going on?”

The people inside the shelter looked at one another in shock.

THUD!

At that moment, the shelter shook violently once more.

Team Leader 1 quickly gave an order.

“Find out what’s happening.”

“Yes!”

The members of Team 1 answered and ran out of the shelter.

A moment later, they returned pale-faced.

“T-this is bad. There’s a Cyclops outside.”

“What? A Cyclops?”

“Yes! It’s attacking the shelter.”

The faces of the people inside the shelter changed completely.

Together with the Ogre, the Cyclops was a monster that belonged to the highest danger group.

Its actual grade was only Grade B, but it was assessed to be more dangerous than a Grade A monster.

A gigantic body over seven meters tall and overwhelming strength.

Tremendous anti-magic power that repelled most Magic.

Most of all, the creature was bipedal and could think.

That was the main reason the Cyclops was considered more dangerous than an Ogre, whose instincts surpassed its reason.

KWAAANG!

The Cyclops seemed to have attacked the shelter, and an even greater tremor was felt.

The shelter, struck by the impact, crumpled greatly, and its seams split open. Then the eye of a one-eyed giant could be seen.

It was definitely a Cyclops.

“Fucking hell!”

The shelter embodied Neo Seoul’s technology.

It would not even be scratched by most monster attacks. Yet that shelter was being crumpled and torn apart like a sheet of paper.

It meant the Cyclops’s attack power exceeded the shelter’s defensive power.

If they allowed the Cyclops to keep attacking like this, the shelter would collapse. They had to subdue the Cyclops before that happened.

It was when Team Leader 1 was about to give the attack order.

BAAANG!

With another explosive roar, the shelter shook again.

The wall on the opposite side tore away, and two more Cyclopes revealed themselves.

“There wasn’t just one?”

“Damn it!”

Despair appeared on the faces of those inside the shelter.

Even one Cyclops was difficult to handle. Yet there were three Cyclopes.

Team Leader 1 and Zahar exchanged glances.

Team Leader 1 gave the order.

“We abandon the shelter. Each team will escape and return to Neo Seoul.”

The moment his order fell, the Pathfinder teams ran outside.

BAANG!

A huge club dropped onto the head of an Awakened who was fleeing.

The Cyclops had attacked.

The Awakened died instantly without even letting out a scream.

“Khh khh khh!”

The Cyclops chewed and ate the Awakened’s corpse, which had been crushed like fish paste.

As if eating one human was not enough to satisfy it, the creature attacked the other people.

“Kraaaagh!”

“Kek!”

Screams rang out one after another around the shelter.

The Cyclopes surrounded the shelter in a triangular formation and enjoyed a feast by attacking the Awakened.

Most of the Awakened failed to break through the Cyclopes’ encirclement and were helplessly struck down.

A huge Cyclops blocked Team 7’s path as they rushed forward.

It was unusually large.

That creature was clearly the leader of the Cyclops group.

They needed to distract it.

Zahar said to Anika,

“We need a sacrifice.”

“Okay!”

As expected of someone who had been with him for a long time, Anika immediately understood the meaning contained in Zahar’s words.

Lightning flashed from Anika’s hand and struck Mandy’s back.

It was her Magic, Lightning Bolt.

Mandy collapsed without even managing to scream.

Mandy, whose entire body was paralyzed, could not move at all.

Anika spat on the back of Mandy’s head and muttered,

“I hated you from the very beginning.”

That was the last thing Mandy remembered.

Soon, deep darkness came.

In that way, Mandy lost consciousness.