Lord Of Puppets-Chapter 171 – Goblin Threat?

(Golem dungeon.) – thought the guild master as she was looking through the documents.

(Apparently the adventurer guild was involved in that dungeon... But because elves straight up burned down the adventurers guild and robbed them, we are lacking information because of these incompetent fools.)

(Still, we have at least story from a party that once took part in the raid formed by the Garmfon kingdom.)

(According to him, the Garmfon kingdom hired adventurers as a military force to raid and try to subjected the dungeon.)

(There were soldiers of the Garmfon kingdom and few C-rank adventurers in the mix.)

(Apparently the adventurers were winning... Until out of nowhere, a series of explosions occurred, resulting in many soldiers and adventurers’ death, as well as causing huge number of people to get wounded all at once, causing the raid to fail.)

(Then there happed a second raid.... But this one is where we lack information.)

(These shitty elves burned down the adventurer’s guild in order to loot them from anything valuable as well as information they had.)

(Still, they should HAD that information on them, since those information were extremely value... Hell! They definitely do!)

(These elves attacked

(We will need to look through the stuff that was confiscated during the war and everything in order to gain some info.)

"..."

(Still, dungeon?)

"..."

"But is it really a dungeon?"

"I mean, considering how much time has passed, there is good chance that the dungeon is no more."

"Not only that, logically speaking a dungeon break would had occurred ages ago and we would had found out about it."

"..."

(Still, the fact remains that the reported number of goblins shouldn’t be too much of a trouble for a small sized C-rank party... And second party initially knew about the missing C-rank adventures as well as their quest, meaning they had their guard up.)

(If that is the case.... The search group was annihilated, without even having chance to escape.)

(Goblins and pigmen are usually consider as "Weak" demi-human monsters.)

(However, the bigger their group is and the more "leader" type monsters is born, the overall strength of the entire group could drastically increase.)

"So no matter what, we cannot ignore the situation."

"If the dungeon was dealt with, leaving the area ’EMPTY’, the goblins could had used it for their advantage and set up their own settlements."

"There is also the chance that some of the dungeon remains were left behind."

"When the dungeon is destroyed, it doesn’t always mean that the entire structure will collapse... They could use the destroyed dungeon structure as their base of operation."

"..." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"A hiding spot...."

(The longer the goblins are left alone, the more their numbers will multiply.)

(Well, the quest we had posted was JUST about investigation.)

(Honestly, we should just went with "organization of the subjection force", but because of how many monsters are currently on the loose, we cannot just willy-willy sent out adventurers left and right.)

(Especially with all these freaking pigmen and goblins on the loose.... THEY need to be dealt ASAP, or their population will keep increasing.)

"..."

"Still, it is better if I do check out few things and see how things will go."

It didn’t really took long for a brand-new C-rank party of adventurers to take on the quest and head off towards their destination....

However, after the days went by, the deadline has come... And the party that went to search for the two missing groups of adventurers has never returned.

"They are gone!?" – asked the guild master, Amelia Smith as she was writing some documents.

"Yes. The party has accepted the quest was a party of 10 members, with 8 being C-ranks and 2 D-rank supporters." – said the male guild staff.

"Then what about the city? The village? Is there anything wrong with the Mevon?" – asked worried guild master.

"No ma’am." – replied the male staff member.

"The soldiers that were in charge of protecting the city repair crew did not reported anything."

"According to them, the adventurers that were in charge of investigation apparently asked around the city, before then coming in and out, probably investigating different areas... Before then just disappearing altogether."

"...Does the city of Maw knows about the situation?" – asked worried guild master.

"Yes. They were informed about it." – said the male staff.

"Apparently without hesitation, the city requested additional reinforcement just in case."

"However, beside requesting the soldiers, they are also requesting adventurers to quickly investigate and deal with the source of the problem."

"Yeah! I would do that too in their place." – said the guild master.

"..."

"Still... This is the third party that has went missing." – said the concern guild master as she stared at the investigation quest post, which was laying down on her desk.

(I’ve already requested stolen documents to be lent to me, in order to possible learning something about that forest....) – thought the worried guild master.

(But a third party of adventurers went missing? Without leaving any form of trace?)

"..."

"This isn’t normal." – said the guild master.

"First time, they may had been caught off guard."

"The second time, they may had underestimated the enemy, since they were goblins."

"But the third time? No way."

"They would have their guard up high as hell all the time."

"Not only that, they got clear instructions to run away once they got enough information and not even attempt to fight."

"So for them to be annihilated, without even leaving behind a trace...."

"It would mean whatever was inside of the forest was already expecting them."

"..."

"Tch."

"There is no other way around it." – said the guild master as she stood up.

"Let’s go." – said the beast-human fox woman as she alongside the male staff quickly came to the main hall of the adventurer guild.

*Inhale*

"LISTEN UP! ALL OF YOU!" – shouted the voluptuous woman on top of her lungs while standing on top of the stairs.

"I’m guild master Amelia Smith! The one in charge of this adventurer guild!"

"And I’m here to announce an emergency quest!"

"?"

"Guild master?" – said confused adventurer.

"Did she said emergency quest? Did something has happened?"

"..."

"As you may know, there is a new quest that was posted recently on the board."

"A investigation quest regarding missing adventurers that has went missing in the territory of Mevon."

"The party that took the quest ended up going missing, without leaving any form of trace."

"Just like the first party as well as second party."

"None of the victims left and traces."

"Therefore, there is good chance that we may had encountered a goblin settlement, alongside highly evolved goblin who leads them."

"Therefore, I’m officially organizing a extermination party."

"Adventurers with rank D and above will be only allowed to participate."

"The official quest poster will be put on the board, later this day."

"Those who wishes to participate, please remain in the city for the passing days."

"At least until I’ve made announcement regarding when the attack force will move out."

"That is all!" – said the guild master, before then quickly heading back to her office.

(Honestly, we lack way too much information.... But we also can’t delay and do nothing.) – thought the worried woman

(The city of Maw. A cursed city.)

(A city that always ends up in the middle of the war and always end up being destroyed.)

(Apparently, when the elves were about done repairing that place, a war broke out and straight up wrecked that place once again... Which in turn now forces us to repair that place.)

(However, it is also a key location regarding territory management.)

(If we wish to repair the territory of Movan, we need to have that place standing.)

(There is a good number of soldier stationing there... But if the crisis that is currently happening there is truly way more dangerous than everybody expects, there is a good chance that we may end up sounding an evacuation order.)

"..."

(But something still isn’t adding up.) – thought the woman as she returned back to her office.

(If there was truly a settlement, especially a large one located inside of the Movan territory, the goblins would need to eat a LOT.)

(And!)

(Goblins are mostly male species, meaning that they need to kidnap beings form other species just like pigmen, in order to reproduce.)

(Yet, there was no weird traces or incidents.)

(True, the city may had not been repaired yet, but the villages ARE also being restored in order to restart the reproductions.)

(...So if there was a large number of goblins, they would had raided these villages and stole SOME supplies.)

"It wouldn’t be a lot, but they would still done that."

"..."

"And yet... Nothing?"

"The only thing we have is regarding these goblins that were initially tracked by the first party of adventurers."

"..."

"..."

"Shit."

"Hehehehe....Oh.... Fuck me properly... Eh?"

(If the goblins aren’t causing any trouble, that means they know they need to stay hidden.)

(And if that is the case, SOMEBODY is keeping them in tracks.)

(And that can only mean one thing.)

(A powerful goblin was born that is not only intelligently, but also mighty....)

"In worst case scenario, we may be looking here at the ’GOBLIN KING’."

"He maybe able to keep all these bastards in check."

"....And it maybe would had explained why the 3 party of adventurers went missing."

(And there is also no way of knowing how long that settlement was formed.)

(Nor we know how many goblins we are talking about.)

(Not only that, we don’t know how many evolved goblins are there.)

"..."

"Shit."

"We may have a monster stampede at our hands, don’t we?"