Chapter 20

20. The Night of Deep Madness

The goblin king, Champion Goblin Choplain, who led the largest goblin group in the Maze Forest, woke up from his deep sleep because of a sudden commotion.

“What is it?! What the hell is going on?!”

It was still a dark night, with the moon high in the sky.

But when Choplain opened the window and looked at his village, he saw that the entire place had been dyed red.

Having invaded countless other tribes before, Choplain was quick to understand what was happening.

However, accepting the situation took much longer.

Who the hell is attacking me?

What kind of lunatic dares to invade my kingdom?!

Until now, no one had dared to challenge him, the leader of the largest group in the Maze Forest.

A few days ago, a one-horned warrior from the Uma tribe had caused a huge commotion and killed one goblin warrior.

But aside from that incident, there had been no serious damage.

Could it be that Uma warrior?

Did he come back with his own group?!

But he didn’t seem like the kind of man who would do that!

“Great Chieftain! It’s terrible! R-right now! Some crazy bastards are—!”

“What? Crazy bastards? Did the Uma tribe suddenly go insane?”

If that were really the case, it would be a disaster.

The Uma were a warrior race that worshipped strength and honor.

If all of them suddenly went mad and started attacking everything in sight, the damage would be enormous.

“Huh? No! They’re not Uma! They’re the Muriossori that live nearby!”

“…What?”

Choplain knew that a large group of Muriossori lived near his kingdom.

However, the Muriossori had never attacked them because they probably knew they didn’t have enough soldiers.

Choplain also hadn’t bothered to eliminate them because he believed he could deal with them whenever he wanted.

So this sudden invasion made no sense to him.

“Why are the Muriossori…? Ah, whatever! Prepare for battle immediately!”

Whatever their reason was, anyone who entered his territory and caused trouble had to be eliminated.

Choplain immediately gave orders to the goblins waiting nearby and began preparing for battle himself.

If this had been an ordinary goblin group, they would already have been thrown into complete chaos by such a late-night surprise attack.

But Choplain’s goblins were different.

They had been thoroughly trained by him as soldiers.

They were on an entirely different level from ordinary wild goblins.

“Great Chieftain.”

As soon as Choplain finished preparing for battle, his warrior Tahaka called out to him.

He quickly began his report.

“Garawa and Nadaba are currently fighting them below. Masaja is out scouting, but I already sent a messenger to call him back. He should return soon.”

“There is no need to call Masaja. Two warriors are already fighting them.”

“…No, Great Chieftain. Acha and Pagya have already been killed by them.”

Choplain couldn’t help but be shocked.

They were only Muriossori.

Even if they possessed combat abilities far above what their levels suggested, they shouldn’t have been able to compare with his trained army.

Yet they had already killed two of his warriors, were fighting two more, and were turning his territory into a battlefield.

Ridiculous.

This is supposed to be the largest army in the Maze Forest?

This pathetic group?

Only a few days ago, a single Uma warrior had suddenly attacked them.

That warrior had effortlessly torn through his army.

Then, after a while, he had casually left, saying that he was disappointed.

And now, only a few days later, it was happening again.

Choplain’s anger reached its limit.

“Go! Bring Nyama and Tipihi here immediately! Tell them to kill those bastards!”

“…Great Chieftain. They fought against the invaders as soon as the Muriossori attacked.”

“What? Then why haven’t I received a report?!”

“…That is…”

THUD! THUD!

Before Tahaka could finish speaking, the ground began to shake.

Against the background of the burning territory, the enormous mutated goblin Tipihi came running toward them.

“That idiot! What is he doing here?!”

BOOM!!!

Only then did Choplain see Tipihi’s face, which had been hidden in the shadows.

His face wore a horribly twisted smile, as if he had been possessed by something.

Tipihi was the largest and strongest of their tribal warriors.

Once he went completely berserk, the other goblins had no way of stopping him.

“What the hell is happening?!”

Choplain hurriedly drew his sword.

He jumped over the goblins lined up in front of him and charged at the rampaging Tipihi.

Then he swung his sword.

CLANG!

“Ahahaha! Hey, hey! I’m having a fun little drive here! Why are you getting in my way?!”

A man appeared behind Tipihi.

His body was covered in darkness deeper than the shadows created by the bright moonlight.

He blocked Choplain’s sword with a gauntlet shaped like the hand of a beast.

Then he revealed himself before the goblins with a horrifying laugh.

His name was Inkwang.

There was no reason for Choplain to be pushed back by the difference in strength between him and Inkwang.

Yet Choplain instinctively stepped backward.

“Ahhh, what a shame. What a terrible shame. I have to leave behind all these wonderful materials… And they can even talk!”

His voice was cold and sticky.

Even the Uma warrior from before had recognized Choplain as an enemy.

But Inkwang didn’t even seem to regard him as an enemy.

His eyes looked like those of someone watching a line of ants marching by.

His attitude was like a child disappointed because he couldn’t take his toys home.

“Who are you?”

“What are you going to do with that information?”

The moment he finished speaking, Inkwang threw himself forward.

He began cutting down Choplain’s soldiers one after another.

“Tahaka! Stop Tipihi!”

“Understood!”

If Inkwang had arrived together with the Muriossori, things might have been different.

But in the current situation, the other goblins didn’t seem like much of a threat.

CLANG!

As expected.

He’s not as strong as he looks!

Inkwang looked terrifying, as if he could swallow the entire world at any moment.

But the attacks Choplain felt against his sword were surprisingly light.

The warriors who had already died must have been frightened by Inkwang’s appearance and fought too passively.

At least, that was what Choplain concluded.

He immediately activated his skill.

“Blue-Blood Sword!”

It was the strongest sword skill of the goblins.

Only goblins with blue blood could learn it.

And among them, only a Champion Goblin could master it.

The sword turned blue and began releasing a deadly poison.

At the same time, the user’s physical abilities increased tremendously.

The overwhelming power radiating from the skill was enough to make most monsters hesitate.

CLANG!

But to Inkwang, who was already fighting, it wasn’t even a threat.

Choplain blocked another one of Inkwang’s attacks.

“Amazing. You don’t even flinch after seeing this skill.”

“Amazing! I didn’t know a goblin could use such a strange skill!”

CRACK.

Everything Inkwang said and did was obviously mocking him.

Choplain realized there was no point trying to reason with him.

He swung his sword with the intention of killing Inkwang immediately.

SSSSSS!

Blue poison sprayed out from his sword every time he swung it.

Naturally, some of it also covered Inkwang.

It’s over.

There was no way Inkwang’s body could withstand such powerful poison.

Before long, the parts touched by the poison would begin melting away.

Choplain had been surprised by Inkwang’s strange movements, which allowed him to dodge every sword attack.

But that was all.

He had killed many warriors, but he was still only one strange human.

Choplain was already planning how to rebuild his tribe.

The warriors and soldiers are all too weak.

If they can be defeated by just one warrior… by one strange human… then I should replace all of them.

“Aaaagh! Guh! Ahahaha! What is this?! What the hell is this?!”

“Poison. Poison forged from the blood of the great goblins, something as weak as you cannot withstand.”

“The flesh melted by the poison will become more poison, and eventually, not even a trace of you will remain!”

“Wow! Amazing! Amazing! I knew it! Goblins are useful!”

Choplain thought the battle was already over.

But normal logic didn’t work on Inkwang.

While still covered in poison, Inkwang charged straight toward the goblin soldiers.

He deliberately transferred the poison onto them.

“You idiots! Get away from him! Now!”

Normally, Choplain’s soldiers would immediately spread out after receiving such an order.

But instead, they charged toward Inkwang.

“Great Chieftain! Something’s wrong!”

Before the strange situation could even end, countless Muriossori came charging toward the hill where Choplain stood.

And among them were goblins who had gone mad just like Tipihi.

“Great Chieftain! There’s trouble here too!”

Inkwang finally escaped from the pile of goblins that had attacked him.

He was far from being in normal condition.

The goblins had bitten him and torn chunks of flesh from his body.

If he hadn’t used his power of madness to forcibly fill in the damaged parts, he wouldn’t even have been able to stand.

“That was really dangerous.”

“I almost completely melted, you know?”

“H-how?!”

“I thought, ‘What if I use your poison to kill your own friends?’”

“It worked way better than I expected!”

“I almost died because of it, though! Ahahaha!”

Inkwang casually walked down from the mountain of goblin corpses.

Behind him were the Muriossori and his own followers.

All of them had completely lost their minds.

“Aaaaagh!”

Even Tahaka, who had continued fighting on Choplain’s side until the very end, was killed by those consumed by madness.

In the end, Choplain was left alone.

“W-what is this?”

He couldn’t understand it.

No matter how he thought about it, there was no way his entire army could collapse and fall into the enemy’s hands in such a short time.

Even if the ordinary goblin soldiers could be defeated, the goblin warriors were different.

They had either been defeated by Choplain in battle or had willingly joined him after being impressed by his strength.

“Masaja…! Even you?!”

Masaja had only recently returned after being called back from his scouting mission.

Yet even he now wore the same horrifying smile as Tipihi.

Tap.

“…Tsk… I didn’t think this would work this well.”

The parts of Inkwang’s body that had turned black because he had forcibly filled them with the power of madness were slowly returning to their original color.

Inkwang placed a hand on Choplain’s shoulder.

He looked genuinely surprised himself.

“What… What the hell did you do?!”

SLASH!

Choplain angrily swung his sword.

It cleanly cut through Inkwang’s wrist.

But the severed wrist didn’t fall to the ground.

It simply disappeared into the air.

Choplain had already deactivated his skill, so there shouldn’t have been any poison remaining on his sword.

Yet the severed wrist looked as if it had melted from poison.

CRACK.

THUD.

CLANG.

“Huh?”

The arm that had brought Choplain to his current position was now gone.

The sword he had never dropped even once during battle fell helplessly to the ground.

“Ahahaha! I didn’t know it would work this well!”

“A-Aaaaah!!”

The hand Inkwang had covered in poison.

The shoulder that hand had grabbed.

And the body connected to that shoulder.

All of it began melting from the poison Choplain himself had created.

Only then did Choplain realize that his body was being dissolved.

He tried to struggle in agony.

But Inkwang was already holding him by the arm that had been holding his sword.

He couldn’t even fall.

“Hey! Don’t die!”

THUD!

Inkwang swung the sword as hard as he could, trying to help Choplain.

But because of the difference in their physical abilities, the sword couldn’t completely cut away the poisoned area.

It only cut through about half of it.

“Huh? That’s strange. It isn’t cutting properly.”

THUD! THUD! THUD!

“AAAAAAAGH!”

“Hey, hey! Stay still! You’re making me miss!”

“I think I can do it if I just try a little more!”

Choplain’s screams continued.

The sound of meat being cut rang out several more times before his screams finally stopped.

“Oh dear. You’re pretty torn up.”

“Sorry!”

“I wasn’t trying to torture you.”

“I just wanted to know where you kept the things you stole.”

“I really went too far.”

Looking at the monstrous human before him, wielding madness like a weapon, Choplain finally understood why his warriors had lost.

Madness.

This human could wield a power even demons avoided, yet somehow remain sane.

There was no way goblins, no matter how well trained they were, could defeat someone like that.

“I-I understand…! I’ll give you everything. Everything!”

“So please, just let me live!”

“Oh! Where is it?”

“Where did you hide it?”

“A vault or something?”

“If there’s a vault, how do I open it?”

“It’s all in the basement of my house…”

“I’ll give you everything, so please!”

“So there’s nothing inside a vault?”

“No traps or anything like that?”

“There aren’t! I swear!”

“Hmm! Great!”

“The fewer troublesome things, the better.”

“Modak!”

A hot presence approached from behind.

Before Choplain could even understand what it was, Modak swallowed him.

“Why would I waste something as valuable as saving you?”

Inkwang then turned toward the others.

“You guys can understand what I’m saying, right?”

“Time for sorting!”

After that, Inkwang went down into the basement that Choplain had mentioned.

And on the surface, where Inkwang had disappeared, the Muriossori, Modak, and goblins began killing each other.

Thus began the deep, deep night of madness.