New Earth- The Dungeon of Madness 11 Goblin Village

"You already leveled up? That's great", it was the first thing Harriet said as soon as she entered. She could obviously see the change in Five since her level was much higher than his.

After a quick breakfast, he followed Harriet to see Kroff, it was just like the previous day.

Today, he learned about the Dungeon Shop; a service that even him had access to, not only could he buy monsters from it with DPs, but many miscellaneous items could also be bought, like weapons like the Harpy's Blood he used, ores or food. However, he obviously could not afford much right now, especially after spending his DP to level up.

"Ok, now that you know the basics of the shop, it is time for a break, you should continue visiting the floors of the dungeons, I recommend going to the tenth floor since it is quite different from the other nine." declared Kroff to end the lesson.

Five simply nodded, when suddenly a green scaly creature appeared right next to him. The creature was tall and had a thin tail, its 2 vertical iris were staring at Five. The latter immediately felt uncomfortable, from a quick look, he could guess that this creature was a lizardman, it was clearly a monster on par with Harriet.

With a very deep voice, the lizardman said "I will be your guide for today, my name is Roy." while signaling Five to follow him.

Five quickly followed Roy and greeted him, he was surprised that it was not Harriet that would guide him, but he thought that it was normal since she still had duties to follow and could not spend all her time with him.

The lizardman was emitting a dangerous aura, looking very unfriendly but still, Five initiated the conversation:" Is it possible to go to the first floor? I would like to farm some slimes, then we shall go see the goblins."

Roy simply nodded and guided him through the tunnels. He was told by Kroff to bring Five to the tenth floor, it did not matter if they went to the 1st for some time. Five still could not distinguish between the tunnels, to him, everything was the same.

Minutes later, they arrived at the first floor. Roy silently stood behind Five with an expressionless face. The latter could only awkwardly ask, "can you please lend me a weapon? Farming slimes without any is a bit hard..."

The lizardman frowned for a second but quickly, a spear appeared in his hands. With a reluctant expression, he silently gave the spear to Five.

[Ancestral Spear(Grade 3)]

Damage: 39-43

Effect : [Armour Break] : ignores 20% armour

It was the first time Five actually held a spear, it was awkward for him. It was a rather short and thick spear, clearly meant for close combat, the texture felt weird, it was neither wood nor metal. But still, Five held it like a sword and started hunting.

Compared to yesterday, he killed the slimes even faster, partly due to his increase in strength stat but mostly due to the spear. Even if he was not effectively using it, the spear had higher damage than the Harpy's Blood.

...

One hour later, Five finally took a break. He killed enough slimes to earn 200 DP; he wanted to continue, but he guessed that he could not exceed a certain amount. And so, he asked Roy to bring him to the goblin's village as Kroff advised him to.

With a nod, Roy lead the way through the tunnels, he was still silent and expressionless as ever. It did not take long to reach the teleportation platform. The tenth floor was not too different from the first; the tunnels and rooms were much larger and goblins could be seen instead of slimes.

Anxious that he would be attacked by them, he quickly asked Roy about them, but the latter quickly told him that they would not attack him unless he attacked first or offended them. Not waiting for Five's reply, the lizardman let out a growl which caused the nearby goblins to turn and look at the two.

But they did not approach the duo, the goblins simply stared at Five and Roy with a respectful look.

"Just look around, we can go to the goblin's village afterward" declared Roy while positioning himself behind Five.

The latter nodded and started to explore the floor. He was surprised to not find any human guards, there were so many yesterday when the secret room was revealed, yet none could be found now.

It did not take long for Five to get bored, the surroundings were very repetitive, there were only rooms filled with goblins. He quickly decided to ask Roy to bring him to the goblin's village, it was the one difference this floor had compared to the others.

In front of a seemingly normal wall, Roy turned to look at Five, "that's the entrance, as long as you go fast enough, you will be able to get through the barrier." declared the lizardman, not giving any more explanation.

"Asking me to run into a wall?" doubtfully thought Five. It sounded like something nobody would ever do, but he recalled that there was something like that in one of the movies he watched in the real world. Full of doubts, he sent a questioning look at Roy, but the latter ignored him.

With no other choice, Five could only do as he was told to. After taking a few steps back, he charged at the solid wall. As he was about to hit the wall, he instinctively closed his eyes, but the collision he expected never occurred. Five opened his eyes, only to find several goblins curiously looking at him.

The goblins wore puzzled expression, "how could a human have found the way to get into their village?" they were about to attack when another figure appeared behind the human and warned them to not attack.

After Five went through, Roy quickly followed behind, such barriers were very common, especially for higher floors which usually housed a village of the creature guarding it. With the same expressionless attitude, he silently stood behind Five.

"Fiouff," the latter let out a sigh of relief, he doubted Roy for a second but fortunately, nothing went wrong. Seeing Roy, the goblins quickly changed their attitude to a respectful one and went back to their own task.

The goblin village consisted mainly of females and children, with a population of about 3000 individuals of which only 20% were males. Goblins had high reproduction rate, normally, a female could give birth once per month. Despite that, the birth rate of the village could not sustain the death rate of the floor, Kroff still needed to purchase goblins via the Dungeon Shop, but the village still did decrease the expenses.

Five strolled around the village accompanied by Roy, the houses were made of a kind of wood and straws, looking very rustic. But there was nothing interesting to see; most goblins had nothing to do, except for a small group that was patrolling the outskirt just in case a human would randomly decide to charge at a solid wall and went through the barrier.

The goblins did not need to hunt or farm since all the food was provided by Kroff who used DP. All their daily needs were being provided, their only task was to reproduce to replenish the population. It was no different from cattle on Earth, raised and fed only to be later slaughtered.

Five quickly got bored, he could not communicate with the goblins who could only make sounds similar to grunts and squeaks, at the same time, they did not dare approach Roy who was just behind.

There was nothing he could do. He continued to explore the village, sometimes, he would see children running around and playing, but they would quickly turn around and flee when they noticed the presence of Roy.

In the distance, Five suddenly noticed a different building; it was much larger compared to the others and also seemed to only be made up of the wooden material. The building also looked like it was isolated to some extent, compared to the other houses which were closed to each other, there were no houses within a 15 meters radius of that one. Compared to the rest of the village, the building and its surroundings also seemed cleaner.

Intrigued, Five proceeded towards the building. There were no goblins nearby. Turning to Roy, he asked him why that building was different, but the latter replied that he did not know since each village was different, he could simply go and have a look if he wanted to know.

Followed by Roy, Five promptly stopped in front of the building's door and pushed it open.

Chapter end