Bloodshed and carnage were visible as far as the eye could see.
Blood, both green and red, was splattered on the ground.
Mutilated corpses without limbs and other grotesque deformities were scattered everywhere.
A heavy, pungent smell of dead people drifted in the air, overwhelming the senses.
The whole scene of carnage was a pure depiction of unfiltered brutality and brought dread upon the spectator.
At first glance, everyone seemed dead, but upon closer look, that assumption would be proven wrong.
Amidst the sea of human and goblin corpses.
A single entity stood by its lonesome, breathing heavily as it observed the carnage it had brought.
It was missing its right eye and left arm and was covered in all sorts of wounds and blood, some its own and others its enemies.
But despite all of this, the figure was unmistakable to Raze.
After all, this was the same figure who made him feel like he would die for the first time.
And judging from the reaction that his body was giving, his earlier intuition was probably right.
The hairs on his body were standing, and sweat fell down his cheeks.
His breath hastened, and his heartbeat was growing heavier as he watched the nearly-dead goblin chief slowly turn towards him despite being more than 300 meters away.
As it saw him, it flashed a sinister smile with blood dripping down its face as a palpable bloodlust seized Raze, paralysing him.
Disregarding any feeling of self-preservation, it ran towards him too fast for him to see.
Seeing the chief disappear from his previous place, Raze felt a sense of doom.
He knew that the chief had figured out his involvement in all this carnage.
'I'm going to die'
This single thought remained in his head as he anticipated the moment the chief would reappear.
And yet his body was unresponsive, too scared to even move.
He wanted nothing more than to just run and hide.
But he knew he couldn't; his only option was to fight head-on.
His opponent was heavily wounded and close to death.
All he needed to do was stall for a few moments until the chief naturally died due to blood loss.
And yet, almost instinctually, he knew that wasn't possible for the current him.
He would instantly die once the chief reached him.
In this moment, even with all his intelligence, he was left helpless against brute force.
Just when he was about to almost give up and try fighting despite already knowing the results,.
A single idea came to his mind.
It was extremely disgusting and repulsive.
And if anyone ever came to learn what he was about to do, they would probably think of him as a scum.
But after everything he had done, he didn't have the luxury to worry about the morality of his choices.
It was either him or them, and he would always pick them.
Within moments, the goblin chief was mere steps away from Raze.
However, once it arrived, it was greeted by a sight it could have never expected.
The human that it had assumed to be behind everything was standing bravely in front of him without a shred of fear, despite his apparent weakness.
But more than that, he was holding a certain child goblin.
With a knife pointed at its throat,.
The chief, who was overwhelmed with anger over what had happened to its people and wanted nothing more than revenge, was forced to stop due to his own son being held hostage.
"If you take another step, say goodbye to your son" Raze threatened.
Despite not understanding what the human was saying, thanks to the intelligence it possessed, which far surpasses the primitive one of others of its kind,.
It was able to better understand emotions, allowing it to get attached to its only offspring and thus be hesitant to move.
While it was possible for it to move before the human could thrust the dagger into its child's throat,.
It didn't want to take that risk.
The child in his hand was knocked out and still looked unharmed, allowing the chief to breathe a sigh of relief.
Seeing its reaction, Raze inwardly smiled.
Honestly, this was a real big gamble, as there was a very real chance it wouldn't care about its own son and instead just kill him.
After all, monsters weren't meant to possess emotions or familiar affection.
But thanks to the emotions displayed by the goblins in the village hall upon seeing him massacre their kin, Raze had noticed something similar amongst all of them.
All the goblins who displayed human emotions looked like humans.
In other words, hobgoblins.
Due to the many similarities between hobgoblins and humans.
Raze made a plan based on how a human would react in this situation.
It was a stupid idea, as there was a very big chance the chief might not be driven by the same emotions as a human and might be more logical and cold.
In the end, it was basically a gamble.
And thankfully for him, luck seemed to be on his side this time.
But not wanting to waste the opportunity he created.
He activated his gate ability.
As a small, palm-sized, circular blue portal started forming in front of him.
The goblin chief didn't know what it was, but he could tell that it was dangerous and was prepared to dodge it.
However, just when it was about to dodge, Raze applied a little force to the dagger aimed at its son, drawing a drop of blood.
Indicating the fate of the child if it dared dodge.
Thus, it was left with no choice but to obey. In the end, its fatherly instinct prevailed over self-preservation as its innards splattered everywhere after getting hit by a spear fired from the gate.
A few notifications whispered in Raze's ears.
[Ding! Climber has killed an E-grade beast.]
[Ding! [One E-grade beast shard gained]
[Ding! A new rune of [Perception] was gained.]
**
After an unknown amount of time, the little goblin child finally regained consciousness.
As it slowly opened its eyes, it thought it had heard its father's voice.
But when it looked around, trying to find him,.
What he was greeted by was a sight straight out of a nightmare.
Hot oranges were blazing fire everywhere the eye could see, razing everything to the ground.
Smoke filled the skies, and cries of various life forms flooded the ears.
The smell of ash and smoke made it difficult to breathe, and the ever-increasing temperature made the moisture in the body dry.
Slowly but surely, the whole green forest was being burned to the ground.
Seeing everything it had once loved and was meant to someday inherit, the little kid could do nothing but cry.
Which is exactly what it did.
It cried for hours nonstop, all alone in a desolate part of the forest.
And yet, despite all the noise it made, its cries went unheard.
Until eventually the dreadful figure responsible for everything walked out nonchalantly out of the woods and looked at him.
His daimond-like blue eyes were as cold and emotionless as when he massacred its kin in front of him.
There was not a shred of sympathy or remorse evident on his face.
As he slowly made his way towards it, a long silver spear manifested in his hands out of thin air.
Before long, he was right in front of the goblin child.
Without any hesitation, he moved his arm and spear in a clean horizontal motion and ended the last goblin and monster on the whole second floor.
In its final moments, the goblin child didn't try to resist or take revenge; all it did was engrave the cold, emotionless face of the boy, who appeared to have crawled out of hell itself, in its mind.
Notifications whispered in an insidious tone in his ears as his figure broke down into small light fragments.
[Ding! The climber has cleared the second floor.]
[Ding! The climber has destroyed the second floor.]
[Ding! Climber has made a noteworthy achievement.
[Ding! Climbers name has been acknowledged by the tower.]
And before long, Raze's body had finally disappeared from the burning second floor.
Only minutes before the whole second floor crumbled apart.
Truly destroyed and never to be reimagined by the tower ever again.
This was how the tragic and mysterious tale of the forest of the wild came to an end.