Aeon Nether & Idol Effigy

Chapter 44- Off Topic

Successfully syphoning off the energy from the dungeons core was dangerous. It was common sense. A dungeon is a place filled with monsters and monsters barely feel the need to break out of their dungeons. Bear in mind that they only dungeon break when the dungeon is first established or when they are tricked into being sent out. Tricked as in not being aware of the situation outside of the dungeon, but due to their overwhelming numbers in the dungeons or time spent in the dungeon they have a need to gain more resources from somewhere. This still takes a copious amount of time and would require no one visiting the dungeons in this world for a while.

After all, not many dungeons are in this world and not many of them have monsters. Even then, the amount of people that dive into the dungeons is more than enough to allow ordinary citizens to feel like the world isn't much different from my last. The only exceptions are when dungeons appear and even then, that would just be seen as being unlucky.

Yeah, even if the dungeon is perceived as a world full of idiots that run fully on the random instincts the monsters choose, then their reaction to the world they see when they get out of the dungeon is telling. That is, a confirmation on how crappy the world is.

How many times has it been that people in this world get lazy and choose to watch on when monsters drag humans into dungeons as food? Honestly, it's common to think that the monsters won't come back out of the dungeon after the first time they do. Odd as it is, they seemed to have accurately observed how there are only humanoids that they can view as resources outside of the dungeons and to be honest, they'd get better quality humanoid food if they stayed inside of the dungeon to fight each other.

So, coming into the dungeon and seeking to syphon off the core to upgrade yourself is seen as an instant summoning of all the monsters wraith in the dungeon.

That being said, the ruins taught me that this was the way to permanently kill certain types of dungeons. One type being a platform kind of dungeon like this one. You know, monsters come from who knows where and appear in the dungeon. In theory it would follow that they make some kind of base camp here and then aim to invade in order to pilfer the lands outside of the dungeon. Luckily, this world only treats those kinds of monsters as rare.

Monsters are stupid here and the only ones that aren't stupid are the ones with mutations. But given how the rare mutated ones seem to follow a certain type of pattern in their appearances... Well, Humans are probably the true idiots in this world. The hunter book was enough to inform me about the appearances of mutated monsters and they just seem to be happily rotated through by their 'core' tribe of monsters. The mutated monsters tend to be kicked out like they are an idiot of their 'core' unmutated tribes/group of monsters.

"Aeon, what are you thinking about? You have a stupid look on your face." Felixe's honest and slightly annoyed voice sounded.

"I'm not distracted..." After stating such with a look like I've just woken up, I continued transfering energy to the two of us and whilst we were digesting the energy, I drew a long sword to kill the early goblins.

Without looking at each other, a systematic annihilation of the dungeon monsters began.

After the ninth grouping of goblins got slaughtered a strange 'mutant' goblin appeared to slowly walk up to us, but never entering our range.

The eyes of the goblin were human, but everything else about the goblin was goblin like. It was odd, but if I had to describe it it seemed to have reached a terrifying state with the least amount of effort. The cartoonish childish goblin body had a different atmosphere with its bright blue slightly aged human eyes. Imagine those shows where objects, fruits, vegetables or cartoons get a person's eyes green screened onto them. Or that failed model of a game character that couldn't quite move from the cartoon original version of itself to the realistic version. Well, that's what the goblin appeared to be.

But even if I was being egotistical and thought that all my previous reasons in my train of thoughts are correct, it's strange. The mutant monster that currently appeared was different. It didn't follow the pattern or former templates of goblin mutants who'd be neatly categorised as a certain type of mutant monster.

Uneasy as I was, I knew that its appearance should make some sense in my knowledge bank. Afterall, other than Trina's lacking viewpoint, Emma who constantly went into dungeons didn't have any information about it. But the monster seems smarter and stronger than mutant monsters. It was also in this dungeon which general dungeon groups of humans normally go through.

You're telling me it didn't do anything in these dungeons to earn any notice from humans in the digital era? The kind that would take pictures of what's in their toilet and the food they get served at restaurants? The ones who worry the most about diseases and money, didn't report this new mutated type of goblin? That no one reported the strangeness or that the creature didn't do something to end up becoming a dungeon or world related news topic?

Unlikely, and as unlikely as it was, it was all the more disturbing.

Just by looking at it you'd expect some article to start exploring the possibility of dungeon transplants becoming a new trend in the monster community. I mean, surely someone went out and talked about a weird goblin that seemed to have killed a human and taken its eyes.

Right?

Felixe didn't do anything either. Is it really safe? As more thoughts incessantly sounded off in my mind I feel Felixe's hand on my shoulder as he pulls me back from the direction of the human eyed goblin.

Perhaps it really isn't safe...

"hoo", letting out an annoyed bout of air I freeze slightly. Nothing happened to me, it's just that I could hear the sound I made.

Seeing that my flow of energy froze alongside my frozen figure Felixe shook the hand that was still on my shoulder. "Aeon, just finish using the dungeon core. It seems like the leader of this place is letting us continue without any more interruptions."

"Yeah, but why is he letting us do that?" In the back of my mind I also wanted to ask why Felixe called the mutant goblin leader. Even if a mutant goblin became a leader it was still odd that the goblins didn't try to get rid of the mutant or fake allegiance. There was no sign that the mutant was the leader making it all the more alarming that Felixe named it as such. But with Felixe having more knowledge than me, I didn't end up questioning him.

"You don't need to overthink it. We came to drain the core on the trip and now we're being given a chance to. It's not like we can't do other things when we're absorbing the core either. Why give it more time if you think it's being strange?" Finished with his mini-lecture he dropped his hand from my shoulder, but not before I noticed a slightly medicinal cologne scent coming off of him.

My energy once again continued cycling as I silently murmured a confirmation to myself. "You're not wrong."