Chapter 20: Unexpected sight. Bozo is confused, baffled, puzzled and flabbergasted.

Bozo's calm appearance itself was a threat. Gros instantly moved his gaze away. If he looked at Bozo any longer, he would start to panic and perhaps even die in the same pile. What about his brother?

One who doesn't heed warnings is nothing but a fool.

Bozo maintained the calmness. He was busy controlling himself. At the moment, he was scanning all the goblins in the place.

[Name: Reina] [Level: 8]

[Name: Tris] [Level: 4]

[Name…]

Their names levitated above their heads, and so did their levels. It was an inbuilt function of the system, but now, after using it for the first time, he set it to permanent.

Amidst the crowd, he found an elevated platform where the highest and strongest goblins sat. They had the title: [Goblin Elder]

Kara was naturally not present. And since there was no specific Goblin King or General yet, then it just meant that one of the Elders was the leader of the town.

He wasted no time and simply walked towards the place where the Elders sat. It was without any malicious intent, but for some reason, the Goblin Warriors who stood on watch rushed towards him when they noticed him approaching the place.

"Capture him!", screamed one of them, catching not only the nearby Elders' attention but also everyone else's.

"…?", Bozo turned back, as if searching for the one whom they were pointing at, but seeing that no one was behind him, he realized that it was indeed him.

'Are you for real?', the goblin warriors came close and surrounded him. They held spears pointed at him. This prevented him from moving.

"What did I-"

Slap!

Bozo wanted to ask about his crime, but before he could, a slap was thrown to his face. His face turned to a side as he gazed at the ground below. Slowly, he moved his eyes tracing the goblin's outline, the one who threw the slap.

[Name: Gwon] [Level: 16]

"…"

Seeing the level was enough to shut down his thought process, for now at least.

"Move!", said Gwon as he kicked Bozo. Due to the absence of a leg, he ended up falling on the ground with his face receiving an impact.

Gros's brother laughed out loudly as he saw the scene. Adding to them, there were many more goblins laughing out loud.

Bozo silently memorized their faces with a glance that lingered in his own shadow. His gaze fell on the Elders who were nonchalant about the matter. It was as if they didn't care.

'Noted.', he took a look at them as well.

For now, he decided to obey the commands of the guards who dragged him away to a certain place. Bozo thought that the goblins here were simply unjust and unfair. They were just too much.

He thought that treatment varied based on the presence or absence of limbs and whatnot? But only after arriving at this certain place did he understand the true essence of their behavior.

It was somewhat dark. A cave carved into a gigantic pile of hard rocks glimmered with only a few glow stones. Bozo was dragged into the cave which was guarded by a few goblins.

The cave was long, and it took roughly ten minutes till they reached the desired place, but all these ten minutes were by no means peaceful.

"Please! Please let us out, I beg you."

"Mom… Uw, I don't want to die… Mom!"

"Sister… brother… Sniff, uncle…"

"One chance! Just one chance, please. Just let me out once, I will prove my worth, I-"

Clang!

Bozo's eyes moved left and right, glancing at the prison-like bars that were set up. There were several iron rods set up, locking away tons of goblins.

As Bozo looked at those bars, a word popped up beside them: [Iron]

The very next second, his eyes widened as he asked himself, 'Why do they have Iron?'

'It's rare, way too rare! How come they have such huge quantities?', Bozo's eyeballs trembled, completely baffled and confused.

Iron is not something that could be easily dug up. It was so expensive that trading them was also impossible. So just how did they acquire it?

If it was one or two, Bozo would have dismissed it using the word 'Luck', but so many? That's unnatural.

'Only humans and dwarves know the ways to process such a high amount of iron. Did they trade it with them?'

'No, not possible. Humans and Dwarves have too big of an ego and pride. They would never go out of their way to do something like this with us puny goblins. But wait, even if they do… I'm pretty sure they would demand an excessive amount of things as an exchange.', Bozo gulped down a large chunk of saliva as he once again looked at the Iron bars with semi-opened eyes.

'Humans would demand an excessive amount of Gold for this. Surely this village couldn't have such quantity. As for the dwarves, they would demand mythril ores, which is also out of the question.'

'Then just how?', his thoughts seemingly went nowhere, stalemating themselves.

A century would pass, and he would still not find the answer to his own laid-out questions, so an external revelation was mandatory, which came in the form of a nerve-wracking experience.

'No… not possible.', Bozo heard a language which he didn't understand, yet it felt familiar.

He knew not even a single word of it, but somehow, it made his saliva-filled mouth and throat go dry. The tips of his fingers shivered.

Confronting the situation, Bozo raised his head to look at exactly who spoke this, and as he did this, he simply couldn't believe his eyes.

Darkness… complete darkness covered his eyes.

He made no single sound nor thought anything. It was as if he had transformed into a statue. His eyes remained wide open for about three more minutes before he too, was locked up inside a cellar.

About ten more minutes passed as his lower lips quivered. His cheeks raised with his eyes getting smaller. A smile of a madman mixed with sorrow was now etched on his face with a few drops of tears rolling down.

With the driest throat and barely any audible voice, he whispered to himself, "A human…"

"Why was a human talking to a goblin?"

"Haha…"

"How was he able to talk to a goblin? How were they able to understand each other…"

"No, more importantly, why was there a human here!?"

"Haha…"

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

A/N: Join the discord: https://discord.gg/BSU2UZT4s2

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