Unaware that the intelligence was incorrect, the Four Sages set out the next day. After three days of travel, they arrived at the forest marked on the map, and after some exploration, they found the location of that cave.
Although the cave had been somewhat camouflaged from the outside, the technique was very crude; while it might fool some low-intelligence monsters, it could never deceive cunning humans. This cave looked as if it had been artificially excavated, with obvious signs of digging on it, and the entrance was so tall that it was likely prepared for the convenience of the Goblin General mentioned in the report. However, when Imena saw the size of this entrance, she felt a slight sense of oddity.
"What's wrong?" Herculean noticed his girlfriend's strange behavior and asked considerately.
Imena shook her head and said, "Perhaps I'm just overthinking it."
Tsukasa, who heard their conversation from behind, looked at them with a horrified expression. Why were these two so skilled at setting up death flags?
Saying such things—even if there were no problems originally—meant that an accident would definitely occur next.
"I think it's better if you speak your findings aloud for everyone to consider."
Although she didn't sense anything capable of threatening her, it was better to pull up such flags whenever possible; she didn't like taking risks.
Hearing her words, Imena felt that she indeed should, though she still felt she was just overthinking. So she smiled and said, "Alright. It's like this: did you notice that the size of this entrance is much larger than the body size of the Goblin General in the report? I happen to know that the Goblin King's body size is about this big, so I just thought of the Goblin King, but I'm clearly overthinking it."
"Hahaha, the legendary Demon King-level monster, the Goblin King? How could a monster like that appear here? You're too nervous, aren't you?" Herculean couldn't help but burst out laughing upon hearing Imena's words.
"That's why I didn't want to say it just now!"
Seeing him mocking her, Imena stomped on his foot in annoyance, but he dodged it.
Herculean said seriously, "Don't mess around, we're still on a mission. I'll let you stomp on me when we get back."
"Hmph! I'm not interested!"
Imena crossed her arms and turned her face away.
Seeing that none of them seemed to take the matter to heart, Tsukasa was momentarily stunned.
No way, how on earth have these people survived until now? Is so-called common sense necessarily correct? A cave that is clearly man-made—those Goblins would only dig it so large if they had nothing better to do. This already explains a lot of things.
"Why are you so confident that a Goblin King won't appear here?" she couldn't help but ask.
Seeing her 'newbie' appearance, Herculean and the others kindly explained to her, "You might not know much about this, but the Goblin King is a legendary monster, a Demon King-level creature. He possesses power akin to a natural disaster and can easily destroy a human nation; he is an opponent that only legendary heroes can handle! A being of this level wouldn't appear here secretly; usually, when they appear in the human world, they descend with a massive catastrophe!"
"And so?"
Tsukasa was full of confusion.
She understood the strength of the Goblin King.
But did that have anything to do with whether that Goblin King would appear here? Just because such a thing hadn't happened in the past, and because the opponent was a monster comparable to a Demon King, they wouldn't sneak into the human world? What kind of logic was that? It was as ridiculous as saying that back when she was the strongest mage, she could never have hidden her identity to infiltrate the Magic Academy.
Why, as the weak, should they presumptuously make decisions for the strong? Why assume that their weak selves could deduce the thinking of the strong? That's illogical, right? As the weak, they should do their utmost to think about how to avoid running into the strong! So even if there's a one-in-a-million possibility, they should avoid situations where it might happen!
Like right now.
Despite having suspicions, they arbitrarily assumed the Goblin King wouldn't do such sneaky things because of so-called common sense. What was with this insistence on courting death by taking risks? This is a life-and-death matter; why not act more prudently? Don't you have any self-awareness as humans being the weakest race?
"Don't worry, a Goblin King won't appear," Herculean said, feeling she was just inexperienced.
Arsye saw that Tsukasa's expression was a bit unpleasant, so she pulled on her sleeve and said, "Senior sister, Demon King-level monsters have extremely difficult birth conditions. If a Goblin King were truly born, it would be impossible for the Empire's upper echelons not to know. Furthermore, the Adventurers Guild sent people here beforehand to investigate."
"Yes, if a monster of this level were truly discovered, the Guild wouldn't have let us complete this mission; instead, they would immediately notify all nations to issue a top-level Extermination Order," Ropatik said gently.
They weren't blindly confident; rather, they trusted the Guild's intelligence system. Information that even investigated what kind of monsters were inside rarely went wrong.
Seeing them like this, Tsukasa knew she couldn't stop them.
However, she had already made a silent decision in her heart: after this mission, she would leave this team. She really wasn't suited for group activities after all.
"Is everyone ready? Then let's go in."
Seeing that she had calmed down, Herculean decisively lit a torch and walked into the cave.
The ventilation inside the cave was very good.
But because of this, it was difficult to smell anything from inside. It was completely different from a normal Goblin nest; ordinary Goblins usually wouldn't do such extra things. Therefore, their caves always had a rotting stench, filled with the corpses of prey and females captured for breeding, but none of these things could be seen in this cave at all.
After walking down a path...
A downward slope appeared ahead, and below was actually a camp assembled from hundreds of Goblin soldiers! On both sides of this path, there were also excavated high platforms where Goblin Archers stood, launching attacks at them.
Swoosh!
The sound of arrows piercing the air rang out.
"Evade!"
Herculean and Imena dodged quickly. Ropatik picked up his shield and stood in front of Arsye. Tsukasa, without changing her expression, looked at the arrow that had shot into the ground in front of her and looked up at those Goblin Archers.
A huge noise sounded from behind.
The cave entrance had been sealed.
"Damn it, the intelligence was wrong!"
Herculean shouted with a horrified expression.
In the center of that camp, a Demon King-level monster as large as a mountain was looking at them like a group of insects. The giant cleaver in its hand radiated a terrifying aura sufficient to cause despair. The members of the Four Sages, who hadn't listened to the warning just now, now looked as if their parents had died.
Tsukasa expressionlessly sized up this Goblin King, hesitating whether to go up and test the opponent's strength. However, her current magic casting required a long chant time and had a chance of failure. If her recently learned swordsmanship couldn't beat it, it would be very troublesome. Should she hide in the back and prepare magic? She couldn't help but look at her teammates, who were about to lose their fighting spirit because of the aura the opponent radiated.
Fine.
It seems they can't be relied upon.
And those words they said earlier were definitely death flags. If she hadn't come along this time, these reckless fools would surely die upon encountering the Goblin King.
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