‘Judging by the direction of the sound, Headmaster Astoria should have passed the region I was at to investigate the ruckus I’ve previously caused,’ Vaan thought.
Nevertheless, Headmaster Astoria didn’t linger in the area for long and went on ahead to slaughter goblins.
If Vaan had traveled straight, Headmaster Astoria would have indeed run into him. Fortunately, he had chosen to veer off to the left path.
That being said, Vaan was a little surprised to see Headmaster Astoria enter the Red Goblin Mountains so soon.
‘The Grand Inquisitor’s original plan was to have the mercenaries clear a path for the main force… But the goblins in the inner region have proven themselves to be much more troublesome to deal with… If Headmaster Astoria entered the mountain, then that means the plan has been changed…’ Vaan figured.
Nevertheless, he didn’t find it too surprising.
After all, the goblins in the depths of the cursed region have shown to be skillfully trained, but not by the members of the Assembly of the Silent Night. They couldn’t have trained the goblins so quickly even if they could control them.
‘As expected, the ominous feeling continues to grow stronger. There’s definitely something wrong with the Red Goblin Mountains,’ Vaan figured.
With Headmaster Astoria joining the goblin cleanup, it was safe to assume that they were going to take their time with conquering the Red Goblin Mountains, which was a safe approach..
At the very least, it was much safer than simply charging into the heart of the mountain to eliminate the Assembly of Silent Night’s members.
The Assembly of Silent Night’s members and the goblins were unlikely to be the only threats to be found in the Red Goblin Mountains.
‘If Headmaster Astoria continues to attract all the attention , she is likely to draw out some enemies. That could be my chance to sneak into the core region,’ Vaan pondered.
However, he wasn’t so confident in sneaking around undetected, especially not when the Plant-type Abomination’s attention was on him.
That being said, he didn’t quite understand the relationship between the Plant-type Abomination, the goblins, the members of the Assembly of the Silent Night, and the potential fourth unknown party.
Vaan suddenly paused his movement and extended his senses to the ground, feeling numerous weak tremors through it. They were caused by the movements of a very large force.
His eyes flickered in the next moment.
“Seems like Headmaster Astoria already attracted a goblin horde from the core region. But these kinds of tremors… There must be at least thousands of goblins coming out,” Vaan muttered thoughtfully.
Having traveled so deep into the mountain, he had yet to see any other wildlife besides birds.
Considering there were so many goblins living in the Red Goblin Mountains, they would have long starved to death—if they didn’t have a food source to live on.
“Goblins are cave-dwellers, to begin with. There must be an entire world underneath the mountains. But getting inside has grown increasingly difficult over the years,” Vaan thought.
At the very least, it wasn’t as difficult during the year Lord Helia and Lady Aeliana ventured into the mountains in search of the magic flower.
The Red Goblin Mountains had experienced huge changes in the past three years.
The ground suddenly shook, affected by an especially big impact in the distance, which was followed by several more big impacts.
The clash between Headmaster Astoria and the goblin horde had started.
Before long, the endless cries and snarling laughter of goblins could be heard in Vaan’s area, which was soon followed by hundreds of them entering his detection range.
Thousands of goblins should have been attracted to Headmaster Astoria, and yet there was a detached force of hundreds of goblins passing through his area.
Unexpectedly, the goblin horde was much large than he imagined.
“Given this many goblins leaving the core region, the person in command of these goblins must have sent them all out to overwhelm their enemies,” Vaan’s eyes flickered, having understood what was going on.
While the Grand Inquisitor’s side wanted to reduce the goblins’ numbers a little at a time, the other side wasn’t just going to sit around and let it happen.
They would rather send out all their goblin forces at once to destroy their enemies, forcing an all-out war.
Evidently, the person in command wasn’t stupid.
There was no reason to be passive when they hold the advantage on their own turf, the region under the heavy influence of the Curse of the Purple Umbala.
From hundreds of goblins, the number increased to over a thousand goblins in Vaan’s area. He even spotted a few dozen Rank 2 Green Hobgoblins in their ranks.
“If there’s already this many goblins in just my area alone, there must be at least tens of thousands in this goblin horde… Just how big is this underground world?” Vaan wondered.
Nevertheless, his gaze sharpened in the next instance.
Seeing the huge force of goblins making a clean sweep of the area, it was unlikely for him to sneak past them. They weren’t leaving any gaps in their formation.
He could choose to retreat.
However, he didn’t feel like he could lose. And he could make it past this detached force of goblins, he would have no problem reaching the core region after as everyone else would be busy fighting.
‘Well, this is fine. I’ll just take this chance to test the effectiveness of my Goblin Hunter Killing Intent,’ Vaan mused.
Before the thousand-strong goblin force got close to Vaan, one of the Rank 2 Green Hobgoblin’s noses suddenly twitched before it roared in his location.
“Oh? The hobgoblins even have enhanced senses?” Vaan mused with a smile, feeling unaffected that his hidden location was exposed. Any new discovery at this point was unsurprising to him. “So the goblins weren’t just trained but also enhanced.”
Shortly after hopping down from the trees, he swapped out his White Unicorn Spear and crude weapons for his dual gunblades as he faced the large goblin force.
Against such a large goblin force, he couldn’t fight casually as he did until now.