The World-ruling Dungeon

(The following conversation was translated to Human Language)

 

"Move, people! Move!" A Hobgoblin clapped his hands with a rhythm while urging his subordinates to get ready. In front of him, a whole army of goblins, most dressed in rags or remnants of actual armor that barely resemble the original, were forming like a military unit. Over a hundred of them. 

 

"We are the tip of the spear. We spread, we run, we come back to tell them what we saw. Do you understand?"

 

"""Yes, sir."""

 

"What is the most important part?" An odd silence hovered over the room. No one poke a single word, until a single goblin raised his voice.

 

"We run ahead?"

 

"No, you idiot! WE COME BACK!"

 

""BOOOOOO!"" As the mob started booing him, the nearby goblins slapped the hell out of him. Of course it hurt, but this was a staple, nobody wanted to seriously hurt him. The joking atmosphere lasted a while. The hobgoblin exhaled, relieved. Not only was this his first time leading this many people, it had only been an hour since he was named and evolved into a hobgoblin. He could feel the sense of awe from those who worked with him. It took them a few minutes to get used, but eating meat for the first time in a lifetime was enough for all of them to quickly get used to it. But it was not as simple as that for the other hunting groups... Rather, some of them were jealous of him. From the naming, the evolution, and all other things. This speech was important to make them understand he was now above them, although he himself was not aware of it. But since he succeeded anyways, the means were proper.

 

"Now, we go, report back to me, MOVE!"

 

With him, more than a hundred goblins left the cave. Closely behind, winding through the tunnels excavated by their own hands,moved the Goblin King's entire army, 17 divisions of over a hundred goblins, each led by a Hobgoblin General, and one of 47 Hobgoblins, Wizards.

 

The calamity began to move.

 

----------------

 

Gahan and Garth silently walked through the corridor. In the end of the tunnel they crawled through, was a small room much like all others so far. There were no monsters that could be spotted, so they started moving forward.

 

"Come on! Another corridor!?"

 

"It is what it is."

 

"But why so many of these!?"

 

"God... You've become very annoying..." Gahan was slightly alarmed at Garth's strange behavior but now it was getting on his nerves. 

 

"But-"

 

"Shut up!" Gahan to the side, stopping Garth from walking any further. "This place... There's something wrong."

 

"What do you mean?"

 

"I don't know... But this corridor feels odd. There's something ahead but I don't know what."

 

"Aren't you getting a little paranoid, old man?"

 

"... It might be."

 

"Then, let's go?"

 

"Yeah... But be careful. There might be some sort of trap."

 

"Sure."

 

As they walked further through the corridor, the sense of oddity grew further and further inside Gahan. But no matter how hard, he couldn't point out what was causing it.

 

'This is bad... but we gotta continue.' He shook away his doubt and kept on moving steadily, until.

 

*CRACK* *CRACK*

 

He started hearing the sounds of stones cracking to both his sides, he prepared for something to come out from the walls.

 

"Garth! It's coming!"

 

Garth clenched the hilt of his sword, preparing to engage the incoming enemies, but contrary to Gahan's expectation, what happened next was the same as last time.

 

"JUMP!" Garth yelled as the ground under his feet began collapsing. Unlike last time, Garth realized what was happening and managed to jump, enabling him to fall onto the debris unscathed.

 

"Again!? What a shity and annoying trap." Garth jeered. Both him and Gahan had managed to avoid any injuries, but falling somewhere else was always annoying. 

 

"Yeah... We need to figure out where we are."

 

"No need... Look." Garth pointed to the corridor behind Gahan. At its end, a blazing fire marked the path. "That's the fire from where we left Poert and Lard."

 

"So we go the other way..."

 

"Wasn't there some kind of monster trap in this corridor from what they said?"

 

"Doesn't seem like it anymore..." As he began walking, a chemical smell started to tickle Gahan's nose. He snorted and spat on the ground ahead of him, only to be greeted by a fizzling sound. 

"Perfect. There's some corrosive shit on the ground."

 

"They said there were Acid bugs around..."

 

"Yeah... Those were probably crushed by the ceiling."

 

"What do we do then?"

 

"We run through it, I guess..."

 

"Do you really think that's a good idea?"

 

"As good as it's gonna get..."

 

"Then we do it on the count of three. One, Two, WAIT!"

 

"Huh!?" Gahan was confused, but only for a second.

 

"Look!" Garth pointed towards the walls, where tiny green heads began showing through small holes. "The bugs..."

 

"Fuck..." Gahan looked behind him, towards the flames, but the same could be seen. "There's no other way, it seems."

 

"Haah... We gotta do what we gotta do, right? Let's run for it."

 

"Yeah."

 

As the pair flashed through the corridor with all their might, bugs poured out from the walls behind them, attracted by the noise of their footsteps. Gahan increased his pace, running at his top speed, leaving Garth a few steps behind.

 

"WAIT FOR ME! STOP!" Garth yelled at him, realizing the insects were starting to pour from the walls beside him. Gahan, however, did not slow down. "FUCK!" Garth ran as fast as he could, the bugs slowly making their way under his feet. He almost lost grip a couple of times, before making it's way past the corridor, the bulk of the tide of bugs riding behind him.

"Fuck you, Gahan! Were you trying to kill me?" He yelled at Gahan, who finally lowered his pace, allowing him to catch up.

 

"If you have breath to speak, keep running. Those things aren't stopping."

 

Garth looked behind him, only to see a tide of acid insects running behind him.

"SHIT!"

 

They ran through the large room they were in, followed by the insects.

Garth breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that the bulk of their speed came from flowing like water through the corridor. They slowed down significantly as they reached the large room. And as such, the two were able to make their way into the next corridor nearly unhurt. Nearly, is the way to put it. In the heat of the chase, Garth had not yet realized he was leaving a bloody trail, marking his bare footprints on the ground. Aside from a slightly tingly pair of feet.