third nest

Knowing that the situation was out of his control, Alex gathered everything he needed to finish with the Dungeon for the time coming before making his way out.

By the time he exited the dungeon, the sun was starting to dangerously near the horizon. Alex bolted to his hide hole, took a quick soak before going to bed, even after passing a good part of the day sleeping.

~~~

On the following morning, after gathering different fruits and fishes in the surrounding, Alex prepared his ration, before sealing them under vacuum, in steel boxes.

"Let see." Started Alex, after emptying the large backpack he created from the four. "What do we have here. A steel broadsword, good quality but poorly maintained. Twin knives, shorter than mine, and medium quality. A rapier and a short sword? The broadsword was evidently from Marron; he was the only one with the body type for those, the knives for the smaller of the band, the rapier and the short sword must have been from the vanguards.

I'm surprised that the guild adventurers had weapons in such state, then again, only Marron equipment seems in good need of maintenance." He immediatly pegged him as a man preferring visit brothel and bar than his smith, but as the man was dead, it did not really concern Alex.

The next items were some of the salvaged leather armour, from their form, females ones. He put them aside to recycle the leftover leather later. The rest were miscellaneous camping gears, most of them now nothing more than smashed bits, only worth the materials he could recycle from them.

Alex did found some carefully packed, screwed wooden tubes, in thick fabric, to protect them. Opening one, the pungent odour of potion hit his nose.

Alex frowned his brows at that." They seem more hidden than made ready for use, did one of the females wasn't willing to make them know?" Alex asked aloud, mostly for himself." Nevermind. I will need to test them and see what they do later."

Putting them carefully aside, he then opens the last items, a series of pouches. From the eight, four had a different amount of money, while the other had cores.

"Let me see the money first. Strangely, they would take their purse with them, knowing they are on a mission."

-Its perhaps have more to do with a habit than a conscious act.- Offered CS, also founding it weird.

"Possibly, it may also be a travelling purse, for them to bring things on the way, it would make sense for them to have a larger stash at Orario, not that they would need it now. Let's see, one, two, three, four thousand five hundred and some small change. Yes, it seems more like travelling funds for me."

As he looked through the number of cores, he only found around thirty, all goblins, with a smattering of variants.

"Seems they encounter some during their roaming, not surprising." Comment Alex, seeing the cores, he also emptied his storage. What exit was a veritable waterfall of cores. When the last one dropped, Alex had a large mound of cores.

~~~

The amount he had was nothing to one of the adventurers.

"8.456 goblins cores, 436 variants cores and 55 hob-goblins cores. Add to that, 356 goblin, 132 variant and 1 hobgoblin cores obtain before the blessing." Alex state numbly after accounting for the six types of cores. "Others that those cores, I still have 42 goblin, 35 variant, and 6 hobgoblin gems."

-What are you going to do with those cores?- CS asked, knowing other than short terms magic charge, they haven't much utility.

"I will keep them and sell them once in Orario; the first three types are worth 101.490 Valis and the second another 22.770 Valis. With the 23.256 Valis of the adventurers and my initial 58.640 Valis that 206.156, two grand." Informed Alex, as he stored each type of cores in a sack made of the backpacks.

After accounting his potential worth, Alex passed the rest of the day in skinning the fifty-five hobgoblins corpses in his storage, before sending the pelt back in the time-frozen space. Once he had the required herbs, he would turn those into a hundred and ten metre square of leather.

Done with his task and left with some time before the day end, Alex smelt more of the magic steel quicky, increasing his original stock of eighteen plus kilos.

~~~

(Day 17 since the horde attack.)

As the first ray of sun pierced above the canopy, Alex was ready himself for the day, wearing his second armour set. The weight wasn't a problem; impeding only the knees, elbows and shoulders movements slightly. Other than the little inference that would take time to accustomed, the change was minimal.

The leather layer even added another benefit, a partial imperviousness. Only the outer layer and half of the paddling would soak, the rest protected by the leather. The metallic mesh's sound had been muffled in significant part by the two outer layers, letting him kept most of his stealth.

Putting his last creation, a pair of leather boots, Alex nearly moaned, having missed his previous pair. He just coated the tips and heel, but not sole, in magic steel, to conserve his stealth. Tightly securing them with a rapid weld of craft magic, Alex's feet now protected for any surprise that would be thrown at them.

Lastly, he put on his pair of gauntlets, a stunner runestone on each, along with a pair of bombarda ones he recharged the previous night.

~~~

His equipment may seem inconspicuous, but Alex was suspecting it better than Marron, or any run-the-mill Level 2 Adventurers. It was at least way better than what level 1 adventurer could bring with their meagre income from the dungeon.

Ready, Alex bolted through the forest, following CS direction to the nearest nest. All nests kept to the forest from the information they had gathered, with one closely situate from the Mother Dungeon. With the core he dislodged previously, only two nests remain, powering the defence keeping the Mother Dungeon alive.

Exiting the periphery of the cluster of ironwood, Alex lowers his speed, nearing the nest. Looking briefly at the surrounding, the only point of view out of the typical forest ground, was a large rock formation, forming a small clearing in the surrounding. After the previous nest, Alex had a hunch that it was his target.

Climbing to the nearest tree to the rock formation, Alex took a glimpse in what turned to be a little valley in between the rocks. While too small to be considerate as such, around two hundred meters long on fifty large, the entrapped place was a primary goblins settlement. The view makes Alex through the stone age of humanity, a network of caverns on both side of the rift, with a common ground in-between.

The impression was significantly reinforced as Alex witnessed variants walking around with a wooden mace. Even goblins were armed with stone hatchets. His question on how they obtain wood was responded with the waterfall, at the other side of the rift.

~~~

The reason for the existence of the waterfall was due to the area. Any further in the forest and Alex would start to enter a mountain range. He guessed that the water came from the melted snow further atop with its snow-capped top.

The settlement had been safe, a mountain at their back and a rift between two rock cliffs since its creation. While the goblins couldn't exit it, anyone unaware of their presence would miss them completely.

Even if the dungeon couldn't count on their numbers to defend or expend, it constituted a natural defence that would keep the Mother Dungeon alive. Regretfully, Alex was sensible to magic and felt the connection, leading him there and condemning the settlement to slaughter.

Even if entrapped, Alex didn't blindly launch an assault. From his tree, he could see that the settlement was a horde in itself. Alex wasn't sure if they were a thousand worth of goblins, but Alex could see that the number of variants was dangerously close to a hundred, perhaps even more. The number was so high but so organised that he wasn't willing to discard the presence of hobgoblins, too.

Looking at its configuration, Alex could see the goblins confined at the end of the valley, near him. The variants seem to be in the middle, spreading on most of its length, while none approached the top, near the waterfall.

Jumping at the top of the rocks, Alex made his way higher, stopping from time to time and observe them. Nearing the waterfall, Alex picked the muffled grunts inside the stone, through the crack on its side.

-So, there at least two hobgoblins inside. If they are here, then that means the core isn't far. How do you want to process?-

'Truthfully, I'm not sure. The existence of the holes in the side isn't much reassuring. They could be a simple room or an inter-connected network of galleries. The best would be to smoke out them, make any goblins and variants exit them, before firing magic from here.'

~~~

Consulting shortly with CS, Alex started to prepare buddle of wood' branches and leaves. As most where freshly fallen and still green, they would produce a thick smoke who would either chase them off or suffocate them. Those bundles were stuffed in fist-sized stone balls made by Alex, sporting multiple small holes.

He passed most of the morning preparing hundreds of those, before feeling ready. Alex plan was flimsy at best, and everything rests on those balls. He knows that, contrary to the other two nests, this one would be an attrition war, but after taking on the Dungeon the previous day, and the small number here, Alex feel that he was in his range.

Muttering an 'incendio', Alex kept the spark of fire, before lighting the fist-sized balls. Throwing them one by one in the wide opening, Alex slowly climbs toward the waterfall.

When nothing happened at first, Alex frowned, thinking that something had gone amidst, until he starts to witness fumarole slowly rising from hidden cracks on the rocks around him. Proven that it was working, he continued to chuck them at any large entrance he could see.

Crafting a stone bridge between the two sides, Alex continues to smoke the lair as soon as the volutes of thick white smoke started to exit the cavern, already filling any galleries in between groups of goblins exit to the open air.

The cries of surprise and fear rapidly spread to the settlement, making other exits their stronghold on their own, before adding to the spreading chaos in sighting the smoke.

The ruckus escalates to the point of forcing the hobgoblin into hiding. Conceal in the raising smoke, Alex's face covered, Alex understood what the previous grunt was, seeing the still erect manhood of the hobgoblin, and the dripping fluid of the one following it.

It was the first time Alex witnessed the sight of a hobgoblin female. Unlike a human, the monster had a similar build. Only half a head shorter. Its would easily pass for a small hobgoblin. Other than the evident lack of male genitalia, they shared the same lighter skin tone with males and deprived of a chest.

-Were they would wear a loincloth, I wouldn't be able to see the difference.-

'Me too. I wonder how they feed the young or did they not require substance?' Asked Alex, intricate at the constitution of the monster.

-I would say the magic of the dungeon kept them alive, or the space gems. You may haven't given it too much attention, but the young did have a digestive tract.-

'That would mean they only need to feed too.'

-Yes, and we did them fight over a rabbit.- CS said, keeping then quiet before adding. -Did you not wonder why we have never seen 'elder' among them?- Asked CS, with suspicion.

'You means that they, what? Sacrifice the old to build the nest core?' Asked Alex disbelievingly, but as he thought of it, the idea seems awfully believable.

That may also be why they hunt human settlement, perhaps his something in the body of the being in this world that favours the growth of the Dungeon cores, making the monster hunt for them to grow the dungeon.-

~~~

Leaving Alex with the disturbing ideas, his attention was brought back to the hobgoblins; now eight started clobbering the lesser monster, principally goblins. It seems that the hobgoblins haven't appreciated the ruckus made while they were mating.

Soon the anger started to dwindle when they obtained their blood quota, but Alex caught the glimmer of bloodlust in their eyes. Spurred by the moment, Alex used the spreading smoke cover to send an exploding curse at the first female he has seen. Aiming at the head, the bursting sound seems to deafen all the monster, before a bellow of rage scares the surrounding birds.

It bloodlust sparked by his mate's death, the hobgoblin threw itself at the horde of goblins. Seeing that none other joins, Alex burst two other female heads, before the rest of the group follow the first.

Seeing that they were now wantonly slaughtered, the goblins finally started to strike back. Far from possessing the hobgoblins' strength, the goblins covered their weakness in numbers, swarming a single bigger specimen with dozen of their own.

From his vantage point, Alex could see that the Variant seem more intelligent than he ever through. Left alone from the two sides, he could see the group slowly retreating further, leaving the others fight.

-It seems that leaving together without means of bleeding of stress other than sex, the close ties between them started to crumble.-