"What the hell is this?"
After killing all the newborn Goblins, Xiao goes around the room to check every corner if he misses anything. He then came across something that wraps itself with a dirty cape.
"This cape...I think I have seen it before."
After refreshing his memories, Xiao realizes that this was the thing that the Goblins brought in yesterday.
"Let's see what have we got here."
Curiosity gets the better of him as Xiao slowly move the cape aside to see what's underneath it.
The first thing that came into Xiao's sight was the colour gold. The gold was so vibrance that it makes a significant presence in this dark room. The second was the long pointy ear, and the third was the brown skin colour.
("No mistake. Although I saw one before in real life, I'm sure that this one here is a Dark Elf.")
The "thing" that covered by the cape was a young Dark Elf girl. Judging by her physique, Xiao deduces that she may be around 10 to 11 years old if basing on the Human race age category.
Xiao remembers Lily did tell him before about the Dark Elf race. They are the complete opposite of the High Elf race, dark skin and silver hair, whereas the High Elf possess fair skin and silky gold hair.
("Then why is this one possess golden hair? Gene mutation?")
Xiao has subconsciously drawn by the girl's golden hair as he leans down to touch it. To his surprise, Xiao found the girl was still breathing as she was gasping for air.
"Hey, hey!" Xiao holds her on his arm and slight shake her body while calling her to wake up. The girl only has a slight reaction as her face express pain.
("Aside from her rapid breathing, no sign of waking up, huh? She doesn't seem to suffer any injury, nor any sign of struggling.")
Xiao shifts aside the cape more to thoroughly check her body.
The girl was wearing dirty sackcloth. While there was no cut or bruise on anywhere of her body, Xiao notices a few tiny golden lines on the surface of her skin.
As Xiao traces the lines, he found out that those were actually nerve lines.
Seeing as there was nothing wrong from the surface, Xiao activates his Gamer Eyes to analyze her condition.
("Fever, headache, starve, and what's this...Mana Expansion?")
While Xiao was familiar with the first few symptoms, he never heard of a sickness called Mana Expansion.
After shifting his eyes to focus on the Mana Expansion, he found out that this was a rare disease the absorb the surrounding mana without limit, even excessing the person's mana volume.
It was a relatively straightforward disease yet lethal to anyone who contracted it. Because while mana deprivation only results in a person not be able to wield magic, excessing mana will slowly degenerate the body system.
The most frightening part of this sickness was not how it will lead to death but also how the person dies.
Mana has initially been pure and passive energy. Still, if much of it comes together and stuck in a tiny space, it will turn into active energy.
Eventually, the mana will burst and become a powerful bomb that will instantly incinerate everything within the radius.
To sum it all, the girl was a ticking bomb. Fortunately, there was still time before the mana in her body undergo a chain reaction and causes a mana explosion.
Though it didn't change the fact that she was already in a critical condition.
("Although I still have no idea on how to get rid of the Mana Expansion, let's apply some emergency aid first.")
Xiao took out a bottle of High Potion and a painkiller. He then feeds them to the girl.
Some time passes after the girl drinks the potions, her expression has softened down, and her breathing slowly regains normal.
"Right, this should keep her alive for the time being."
Xiao lets out a sigh of relief. He then carries her out of the room, lays out a carpet he found in the storage room and put her down to it.
Though the girl was still unconscious, she was no longer in the state where she was constantly in pain. Xiao deduced that the mana within her has already leaked out from her mana volume. The golden lines displaying on some part of her body proved that her mana was already started invading her body system. This was the reason why she was in endless pain.
"Okay. This should do it for now."
After attending the Dark Elf girl, Xiao stands up and starts the last phase of the raid-the cleanup operation.
First, Xiao took out his gather and harvest tools. He then began to carve out the materials from the Goblins that he had killed, starting with the Hobgoblin.
("Oh damn, looks like I should bring more bags, but that means I'll be carrying more stuff. How I wish it to be like the inventory in my online game. No labour needed, and no need to carry a bag full of shit around.")
After reaching the extent of his bag capacity limit, Xiao begins pouring oils to all the Goblin corpses.")
Next, Xiao starts to bring the victim bodies out of the cave.
One by one, Xiao work tirelessly without complaint as he carries the bodies of the people. He brings them all to the outside, where the sun shines bright and free.
No one should have their body root in this gloomy shit hole. That was what motivates Xiao to carry out this pointless task.
When Xiao was finally done with the task, he reuses the gadgets he has left on a tree to set up a camp.
After that, Xiao carries the Dark Elf girl out of the cave and place her in a small tent he created. He then made a makeshift shovel and starts digging holes to bury the bodies.
Since animals and monsters won't linger around the hideout of the Goblins, Xiao can focus on digging without worrying about the camp. He did set it nearby so he can constantly keep a close look at it.
It was already sunset by the time Xiao finish burying all the bodies. Though he was already dead tired, he presses on to make one more effort.
He builds a simple tomb plate, and by using a rock, he craves out a sentence in the language of Bergan, which he had learnt some from one of the books at his home.
(May these souls find peace in the afterlife.)
Xiao stares at the grave he had created with a blank expression.
"What the hell am I doing? I ain't feeling better at all even after doing all of these," Xiao commented as he throws away the rock he uses for craving.
Xiao stops at the entrance of the cave. There was a rope on the ground that was soaked with oil. The rope was leading deep into the cave.
Xiao conjures a fire magic-Fire seed. He then lights up the rope, and it starts burning.
With the oil as the fuel, the fire travels through the rope and goes deep into the cave.
After some time has passed, multiple explosions can be heard within the cave, followed by the sound of rocks crumbling down to the ground.
Early on, Xiao also planted lots of bombs and poured oils in the cave. While the practical reason for doing so was to prevent any beast or monster from making a lair, the personal reason was that he wish this place would just burn to the ground.
When all the bombing and crashing sounds have subsided, smokes creeps out of the cave, while the faint burning sound of fire can be heard behind.
Looking at the destruction and the complete obliteration he has caused, Xiao felt nothing but emptiness in his heart.
Xiao emotionless eyes follow the smokes as it floats to the sky, which slowly dissolves into nothingness.
"So much for the glory of victory, huh?"