Infiltration

It had now been 10 days since Raze's start on the second floor. 

The day was perfectly normal and peaceful for goblins, just like usual after signing a peace treaty with humans. 

Ever since joining forces with humans a few years ago, the majority of the goblin population has lived in harmony and comfort until the end of their natural lifespan. 

Even their standard of living had increased drastically, it was truly a dream come true for them. 

While most of them weren't big fans of most humans, they were all fond of the human girl, as she was the only one who could understand them, and vice versa. 

Not to mention, she had a calm and relaxed demeanour, and her voice was soothing for anyone who heard it. 

Which caused most of them to blame the humans hospitality on her.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that she was the main link that connected the two races.

Due to this, both races were grateful to her and attributed the age of peace and prosperity that they enjoyed to her. 

However, their years of peace were about to be disturbed today as a certain extra had at last decided to make his move. 

**

~Skrush~

Stop

Every goblin in the bustling settlement stopped dead in its tracks as a single ant, or rather, a monster ant, burrowed its way out of the ground and skewered an innocent goblin in a single moment.

The ant was pretty large—about the size of a truck—and had a thick iron shell covering its body, with two long, vice-like grey teeth sticking out. 

It had large, round, and red eyes with two small, thin antlers sticking out of its head. 

Following its sudden attack, around 19 more similar-looking ants showed up on the ground and attacked anything and everything in sight. 

Panic and hysteria spread amongst the goblins, who had never seen any race other than goblins or humans other than on the dinner table, as they ran around trying to find cover. 

Within a brief moment of the invasion, arrows rained down from the sky as the goblins stationed at the walls finally took action. 

But unfortunately, their arrows did more harm than good. 

The arrows were too weak to pierce the ant monster's thick outer shells, so they just bounced off. 

The arrows just ended up doing more harm than good, as they ended up piercing many of the panicking goblins. 

But that didn't deter the archer goblins, as they continued to shoot, hoping to pierce the thick outer shell. 

As for the close-range goblins, they rushed forward rapidly as they brandished their weapons, prepared to risk their lives for their people. 

The ants spread throughout the village, which made them harder to contain as they ravaged through the settlement, claiming the lives of multiple innocent goblins.

The weapons of the guard goblins appeared useless as they failed to pierce the ants thick shell. 

Everyone who came close to the steel ants was crushed to bits within seconds, without exception. 

But it wasn't all bad for the goblins, as while their weapons were unable to pierce the ant shell, they were certainly doing damage as scars started appearing on the ant shell. 

Ultimately, it was only a matter of time before they were successfully pierced and the monster they were protecting died. 

After all, there were thousands of goblins in this settlement and only 20 ants. 

Even if there were some casualties, the result of this invasion was obvious. 

But strangely enough, even amidst this chaos, there was one particular 'goblin' who calmly strolled through the street, doing his best to not get spotted or attacked as he made his way through the settlement. 

**

'Phew, that went well better than expected,' Raze thought after hiding behind a lonely corner, still not daring to speak normally. 

Over the past 4 days, Raze hasn't been just lazing around and instead has focused solely on gathering information about this floor. 

According to that meeting he had witnessed a few days ago, it was obvious there was more to this floor than what met the eye. 

While he wasn't really interested in some deep, hidden lore of a tutorial floor that he was never going to think about in the future,. 

He didn't really have a choice, as, from his limited understanding, he needed to learn what the deal of this whole weird forest was if he wanted to clear it. 

This floor, for some reason, was just too hard for a tutorial floor or a climber like him to clear as his second challenge. 

Even Asher's challenge was far easier compared to this. 

In the end, the only conclusion he could come to was that he had drawn the short end of the stick and was thus forced to just deal with it. 

The only thing keeping Raze from giving up on this absurdly difficult floor was the statement from the novel about the tower never giving a challenge that was impossible to conquer.

In the end, the only choice he had was to deal with his bad luck by thinking outside the box. 

After all, he had never been lucky in either of his lives, and he wasn't even that strong in this new life. 

In the end, the only thing he could consistently count on was his brain. 

Which is exactly what he did.

If all went well today, he was about to say goodbye to this floor. 

**

AN:

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