Two days passed since the Master and Damian left the guild. Walking through the border forest, Master Rohan could see several traces of fighting throughout the forest. These traces extended along the entire path and occasionally delved deeper into the forest, straying from the main road.
The two continued walking until they reached what had once been a monster base, right in the middle of the path. The base was almost completely destroyed. Monster bodies were scattered everywhere. Several goblins lay on the ground, decapitated or smashed against trees. The hobgoblins were split in two, their limbs twisted in the opposite direction than they should have been. The ogres were impaled on several makeshift stakes from the base itself. Right in the middle of the destroyed base was a goblin wearing long robes, hanging from a wooden pole, holding on only by his hands, which were nailed to the pole.
'Two months ago, a group of Class Cs took over a base and barely made it out alive. But those two are only Class Ds, and they took on not just one base alone, but seven in total... there's no better way to demonstrate the difference between efficiency and power' the guild master thought approvingly.
Damian looked at the destroyed base curiously. This was his first time examining a monster base. As he walked around, he could hear faint whispers coming from the goblin nailed to the wooden pole.
'Is he still alive?' Damian wondered in disbelief.
"Mercy..." the witch goblin muttered.
"Wow, he's still alive after all" Damian said in surprise, seeing the witch goblin and calling out to the guild master. "Master, this way!"
"What's going on, son?" the guild master asked, arriving and quickly noticing the still-alive goblin. "Ha, those boys did a great job!" The Master said with a big smile, grabbing the goblin by the wrists and pulling him from where he was pinned.
"Ugh!" the goblin complained.
"It was very thoughtful of them to leave one alive in the middle of the road for me to interrogate myself" the Master said proudly.
"I don't think that was their plan" Damian admitted, seeing the goblin's state.
The Master grabbed the goblin's jaw and began to squeeze slowly. The goblin screamed and writhed desperately, trying to free himself from the painful grip. The Master squeezed harder and harder until the goblin's bones began to crunch under the Master's force.
"Tell me... how did you gain the ability to use magic?" the Master asked, as he could feel the natural magic coursing through the goblin's body, something that only happens to those who have used natural magic. "Speak! I know you can do it!"
"Ugh... we... we... WE WILL TAKE WHAT BELONGS TO US BACK. THEY CAN'T TAKE THEM AWAY FROM US FOREVER!!" the crazed goblin yelled.
"Them? You're talking about the godites?" Damian asked, trying to engage the goblin in conversation, but the goblin simply writhed in the Master's grip, completely mad.
"OURS! OURS! OURS!" The goblin repeated like crazy, not paying attention. The Master simply shook his head in disappointment.
Splash!!
The goblin's skull was completely crushed under the Master's grip. A serious and calculating look appeared on the Master's face as he shook his hand to wipe away the blood that splattered it.
"What belongs to them, huh?" said the Master.
"It's the same thing Finn and Darwin told us. Apparently, they're trying to reach these creatures called godites, like Finn and Darwin said, or at least it seems so" stated Damian, writing everything down in his notebook.
"Godites, huh?" asked the Master thoughtfully.
The Master frowned in confusion, as the ancestral mural they saw in the photos only had very confusing drawings. He didn't understand how the two of them could know the name of one of the species, but the most important thing was that they both claimed that goblins were related to this species called Godites, when goblins are known to be creatures born of chaos and not corrupted.
"Shall we look for another base?" Damian asked, and the Master shook his head.
"No, let's move on. When we return, we'll examine the other bases more thoroughly" the Master ordered, and Damian nodded.
The two walked for about two more days until they finally reached the village Finn and Darwin had visited as soon as they left the Forest of the Fallen. The two were very well received by the villagers. The Master thanked them for agreeing to help Finn and Darwin when they needed it, and assured them that everything was under control in the forest. They then stayed at a small inn for adventurers who traveled frequently.
The next morning, the two set out early for the Forest of the Fallen, not wanting to be delayed in the slightest. The two walked through the forest for a few days, occasionally encountering monsters, but it was nothing the guild master couldn't handle. A simple blow from the guild master was enough to end the fight. Except for a bear, which the guild master fought, convinced it was a huge dog, and strangled it until it was unconscious. He then adopted it. Now they had a bear as a traveling companion. The now three members continued their journey to the ancestral mural.
On the fourth day after leaving the village, the three arrived at the entrance of the cave. The guild master ordered the bear to guard the entrance while he and Damian were inside. Somehow, the bear understood everything the guild master said, sitting at the entrance of the cave.
"It seems they struggled to get out…" Damian commented, looking at the pile of rocks scattered at the cave entrance.
"The entrance must have collapsed, and they had to remove the rocks to get out," the Master guessed, entering the cave.
As soon as they entered, the two saw the half-destroyed wooden walkways that ran through much of the cave. They saw several of the destroyed structures where the monsters lived, as well as the cells they had created. As they advanced, they saw the bodies of the monsters lying everywhere, as well as the bodies of the female monsters lying near the cells.
As they went down, the Master carefully examined their surroundings, trying to figure out how two D-class adventurers had survived in such a large base. He quickly noticed that Finn and Darwin had taken advantage of the wooden walkways, bridges, and hanging platforms to get rid of most of the monsters.
"They weren't stupid… they used this base to their advantage and exterminated the monsters using their intelligence, not their strength." said the Master, pointing to several hanging chains and ropes.
Damian nodded, writing everything down in his notebook and taking clearer photos of the place, which he would later organize for the presentation the Master would have with the other Masters from other guilds once they returned to the capital.
"Sigh, this is going to take a time to organize…" Damian said tiredly. "…my girlfriend is going to get mad again for not seeing her for so long."
"HAHAHA, don't worry about the trifles, you can get another one later!" said the Master, still walking.
After a few minutes of descending the tangled and destroyed paths, the two managed to reach the ground, where they saw several enormous rocks along with several destroyed pillars crushing the bodies of several monsters, including the Minotaur and the horse-woman. The Master approached one of the enormous rocks and, using one of his hands, lifted it without any problem and pulled the dead Minotaur out, throwing the rock back down.
"They use the Minotaur's own horns to kill him…" Damian said, taking a picture of the Minotaur's hollow eyes. "I do remember seeing the horn among Finn's luggage when they took him to the infirmary."
"He toke his victory trophy; he deserves it after everything you did here," the Master nodded, taking the other horn Finn had left behind. "This will make a good paperweight. Let's move on."
The two of them went deeper into the cave along the only remaining path until they finally reached the ancient mural, both of them completely amazed.
"This is…" the Master couldn't describe what he was seeing. 'It's different, very different!'
When he had seen the photos on Darwin's card, he knew without a doubt it was an ancient mural, but other than that, he could only see a bunch of scattered, disordered drawings. But here it was totally different. It was as if the drawings had come to life and told him the story in great detail. He had never witnessed anything like it before. This was different. Something deep inside him told him so.
'So this is what they meant about the Godites...' Damian thought in wonder, quickly jotting everything down in his notebook.
Then the Master looked at the large stone doors, seeing markings he had never seen before. He could only assume it was the strange seal the Valkyrie had placed on the mural.
"Don't forget to write this down!" said the Master, pointing at the door.
"Of course, Master!" Damian replied, quickly writing everything down.
"I definitely have to inform Merlin and the other Masters of this discovery... I'll be the envy of the Masters of the other guilds!!" Master Rohan thought happily. "I definitely won the lottery with those two..."
"So... you really think there are other races we haven't seen before behind these doors?" Damian asked, finishing writing everything down and closing his notebook.
"Yes, it's very likely that there are other races living behind these doors" the Master confessed.
"…this will bring more work to the archaeologists. We just discovered that goblins aren't born from Chaos," Damian said, feeling bad for the archaeologists.
"No…this will certainly complement what we already know about goblins. Until now, we believed there were two types of goblins: those from the eastern lands and those from this land. We thought they were the same species and had simply adapted to a different environment, but this changes everything. This proves us wrong, just as we can be wrong about other species" the Master admitted, fascinated. "This opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Not everything is as we thought it was."
The Master touched the doors, feeling the magic within them, but unable to identify or break it at all. He then withdrew the door, sighing slightly before turning around and seeing Damian standing before him.
"Come on, we have a lot of work ahead of us… something tells me this is just the beginning of a new era" the Master said, and Damian nodded slightly.