"Good, you all have done well. You killed them without hesitation. Now you can call yourselves adventurers. But this is just the beginning. If my intuition is correct there must be a goblin village nearby. Don't be careless. Though they are F rank creatures, they still can evolve. Also what you just fought were the lowest ranked goblins. I fear there will be goblin warriors and shamans if we go any deeper."
"If you want to return, this is the last chance. From here on out, there will be life and death battles ahead."
Gustav gave the rookies a chance to back out. He didn't want to force them to face the enemies ahead. There was a chance they would loose their life. This is the risk of being an adventurer.
'Higher the risk, greater the reward.'
All of the newbies didn't back out. They were already prepared when they decided to become an adventurer.
Watching them, Gustav couldn't help but laugh. "Good, very good. I didn't choose any cowards. Very well, from now on you are a member of Roaring Tiger group. Although we are small, we are brothers in arms. We take care of each other. From now on I want you to remember each others face. You will be fighting together risking your lives. Take a rest. In half an hour, we will continue our investigation."
Now all the newbies were elated to join the 'Roaring Tiger' group. Even though they were an E ranked group, they have killed D rank beasts together. All the five members were very close to each other. They took care of each others well.
After resting for half an hour, they started their journey. Slowly and steadily they entered the goblin's territory. After Raizel had expanded his territory, goblins and kobolds were driven out of their homes by other beasts. They had to migrate to the boundary region of the dungeon.
Watching from his room, Raizel added more E ranked monsters to the first floor as precaution. Also when he had checked the amount of DP he was getting from the 15 adventurers, he became elated.
Now he didn't want them to be killed. Though he would gain DP, if they decided to camp inside his dungeon, he would definitely earn more.
Also this was an opportunity for Raizel to know more about nearby civilization. He paid close attention to their dialogues. Later when he would visit the civilization, he didn't want to stand out like a sore thumb.
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Gustav and his team encountered two more groups of goblin patrols. This time they all have to fight against them due to warriors and shamans in these groups.
They managed to kill all of them. All the newbies were slowly getting familiar with killing beasts. Slowly they started to fight properly. They all have trained before. So the get used to fighting quickly.
Gustav became increasingly wary. He now was sure of his previous assumptions. He was thinking why goblins appeared suddenly in the outer region. Before there was no goblins in this part of the forest.
'Could it be..'
Suddenly he thought of a possibility. 'If this is true, then I have to confirm it. If I bring this information to our king, he will reward us heavily. A dungeon near the kingdom will surely open new possibilities.'
"Everyone prepare to fight multiple opponents now. There must be a goblin village around here."
After warning everyone, he resumed his journey.
They faced one more patrol group before they got the first glimpse of the goblin village. Hiding behind trees, they began to survey the village.
"What do you think?" Gustav asked his second in command Darrun.
"There must be at least 2000 goblins. Some of them even reached E rank. I think we should retreat." Darrun answered. He didn't want to fight a battle where there was no chance of winning.
"That's what I am thinking. We should retreat and continue our investigation in another direction. I have a feeling we are going to discover something amazing."
Darrun became confused of his leader's words.
'What will make him excited about this situation?' He could think of any one reason why Gustav was excited.
Later everyone retreated and gathered far away from the village. Everyone was thankful about the decision. They didn't want to fight more than 2000 goblins.
"Lets search in another direction. I think a new dungeon has appeared in this forest. These goblins must have come from there. If we could find out more and manage to bring this news, we will be rich."
As soon as Gustav disclosed his thoughts, everyone was astonished.
"You sure leader? We have to investigate this carefully. This is our chance to become D rank in the future." Darrun and the others become excited.
"Don't worry. We will thoroughly search this region. If a dungeon has really appeared, we will retreat immediately."
After the excitement settled down, everyone become more eager to complete their investigation. Soon they resumed their journey.
They began to search for clues in another direction. This time they met a E ranked Kobold warrior and a E ranked kobold elite warrior along with 20 normal kobolds and kobold shamans. This group was preparing to hunt a E ranked fire lion. But they met the adventurers.
A fierce battle erupted between them. Gustav and Darrun fought the E ranked kobolds while others fought the F ranked ones. The battle continued for an hour. The elite warrior fought madly against Gustav.
It was angry for being interrupted in his hunt. They had come prepared to fight their mortal enemies, the fire lions. The kobold warrior was the strongest among the kobolds. It's strength was only lower than their chief.
But Gustav managed to kill it. With his years of experience and the countless life and death struggles had honed his skills to the peak. It was no match for him. After killing it, he joined others and killed all of them.
Without wasting any time, everyone collected the crystals and hurriedly left the place. Their fighting had alerted the fire lions. Just after they retreated, the fire lions came. Looking at the corpses, they began to search for the culprit.
But Gustav and the others had ran away very far. Without stopping they got out of the kobold territory. Only then they stopped. Everyone was panting hard. Excitement and a small amount of fear was clearly present in newbies faces. This encounter had taught them another useful lesson.
"Let's camp here. I think we can be sure now that a dungeon has appeared. First goblins and now kobolds. I am sure, they were not present before. Tomorrow we will check for the final time and return to our kingdom. We must deliver this news to King Adam."
Taking a rest, they soon started making camps. When they had completed, sun began to set in the west. Soon darkness spread everywhere.
Taking turns to keep a watch, everyone rested in their tents. Due to space rings, they didn't have to worry about carrying many items. This was a reason, now a days adventuring in the wild became easier. With everything you needed inside the ring, you don't have to carry them.
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Watching them resting, Raizel closed his screen. Now he was thinking, how he should approach them.