Starry Land 6

Thud thud. The pursuit of the Ghost Knights continued. After paying the tribute, Gordon left his men behind and went into a corner of the common area alone. Rustle. Gordon emptied his pockets completely.

“…Phew. Three today.” There were still three reinforcement stones left inside. Hwaaaaak! After passing through a short passage, a small room finally appeared. Inside, there were mountains of all kinds of jewels, gold, and intricate ornaments, and between them were a considerable number of reinforced stones. What greeted Gordon in front of him was…

“Kekeke…” It was a golden goblin with reinforcement stones implanted all over its body. I could tell by the way the guy was standing still: each and every one of them was a strengthening stone with the property of ‘resistance.’ The secret to his ridiculous toughness was right there. Swish. Gordon crossed his arms. The reinforced stones were still sparsely placed. Meanwhile, the golden goblin strode towards the soft skin. Then he started poking his long fingernails into the places where he was going to insert the reinforcing stones. Ji-i-ik. Blood flowed out like a stream. Gordon squeezed his eyes shut.

‘Ugh…’ It was a sight I couldn’t watch even with my eyes open. The endless pursuit of power. In addition, Gordon added one more value.

“…This will make me much purer.” Gordon’s gaze was twofold. Although he loathed the rough, golden goblin’s skin, he couldn’t take his eyes off the reinforcing stones embedded all over its body. On the other hand, I…

“Let’s stop looking now.” He immediately took his eyes off Modred and gathered the ghost knights. The ‘Treasure Room’ was surrounded on all sides. Since sniping was impossible, I ended up having to deal with the goblins guarding the entrance and Gordon’s men.

“Ugh!”

“…Ugh!” Gordon’s men with reinforcement stones implanted here and there on their bodies. The returning ghost knights instantly took their breath away. At the same time,

Wedge!

“Keeeek!”

“Ouch!” He thrust his holy spear into the goblins’ hearts. Whether it was because the amount of transplanted reinforcement stones was not enough, Gordon’s men fell to the knights, and the reinforced goblins fell with shallow screams to the spears I threw. An entrance was completely opened up. I thought I handled it as quietly as possible, but I couldn’t fool the golden goblin’s keen senses.

“Keeeeeeeeeek!” There seemed to be a back door somewhere. The bastard ran out of the room screaming, and Gordon ran out too, clutching his bleeding forearm. Gordon looked puzzled, but he quickly assessed the situation by looking at his subordinates rolling around on the floor. Then he shouted at me as I walked towards him with steady steps.

“This kid…! Do you know where this is?”

“You leave all the hard work to others, and then you leisurely get plastic surgery. Huh?” He was a really bad guy. An unreasonable demand to find the dwarf. Those who were forcibly mobilized would have been risking their lives searching the inside of the mine by now. He was a guy who wouldn’t be satisfied even if you cut off his head with a single stroke, but he wasn’t killed right away. An unidentified space decorated with various patterns. Because he was the only one who could explain the identity of this space. But…

Quagwaquagwaqua! It was literally a split second. The bastard dug into the tunnel while swinging his red-hot hands. When I hurriedly looked down the tunnel, it was no longer visible, perhaps because it had changed direction.

“Do you think I would be defeated by a lowly race like you? Me!” A voice boomed through the pit. Pavabak! It was like a quick mole. For someone who was a high-ranking race, the dirt on his face was quite fitting. He wasn’t the only one who ran away. The golden goblin jumped out. Kim Sol and the Skeleton Knights were having a hard time catching him.

Taat! A golden goblin that leisurely evades the attacks of skeleton knights like an athlete.

“This little rat!” Phew! As if she had been waiting, Kim Sol punched the goblin in the stomach, but…

“Ah! Why is it so hard!” As expected, it wasn’t enough to break through that barrier. As if he knew this, Mole Gordon taunted us.

“You will pay the price for daring to come here. The master of Lysium will not forgive you.” A strange word for the owner of Lysium. But we could quickly see what it meant.

Jiiing… A corner of the goblin’s forehead began to glow softly,

Kuung! Kuuung! Ki-ki… The engraved rocks all over the place began to rise one by one.

“What is that!?” Kim Sol shouted urgently, but it was impossible not to know. That’s the golem, a regular at the cave ruins. The golems, following their master’s orders, began to rush toward us one by one.

Kwaaaaang! I barely avoided the golem’s heavy fist. The floor had now become sunken. It was a slow but extremely threatening attack. In the meantime…

Whoosh! Whoosh! The golden goblin was running through the hollow, using the golems as jumping rope, and trampling on the skeleton knights. Beyond there was a room of treasures collected by the golden goblin. Rather than marching in a line, the guy chose to walk around in circles to kill time. Until the golems take care of us all.

“This kid…” There was a bullet that Brock had strengthened. But I wasn’t confident that I could hit that fast-moving thing with just one shot. Between me, Kim Sol, and the skeleton knights,

“That’s what lower races do!”

“Kekekekekekeke!” The two beings who had received the strengthening stones in their bodies burst into mocking laughter. They showed off their outstanding physical abilities as if they were at the Olympics, digging holes, jumping jacks, etc. My physical abilities were extremely weak compared to their nimble nature. But,

“Hehehe… Are they all dead already? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“Kekekeke…” I had a lot of tools and people to help me. Unlike those who boasted of having a superior body and talked about race, I was more civilized than anyone else.

“K…?” The golden goblin stood still with a puzzled expression. In front of it, in the middle of the space, there was a subspace portal. And then, shortly after…

“K…?!” Dozens of red dots began to appear on the goblin’s yellow forehead.

. . .

K2C1 standard rifle +2, price not set. 5.56mm NATO bullet +1, price not set. Academy scientific laser sight, price is 13,600 won. It was just a trivial trick, a small accessory to aid shooting in dark underground spaces.

Taang! Taang! The ‘sniper rifle,’ made up of so many different materials, kept firing. Taang! The K2C1 rifle, which can only fire one shot due to its weak body. But the amount that was lacking could be supplemented with another amount.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier, Jeonggyeom?” Swish. Ethan pushed his wavy blonde hair back. Dozens of elves were scattered throughout the area, each aiming at the golden goblin. One foot each. But…

‘If dozens of people fire, that’s rapid fire.’ I didn’t even explain much. After taking a few minutes of shooting lessons from Army Reserve Sergeant Kim Jeong-gyeom, they began handling rifles as skillfully as they did their main weapon, the bow.

Taaang! Taang! Bullets flew from everywhere. The golden goblin, who had been so relaxed, now had a pale expression and was desperately hiding behind the golems. But…

Taaang! Crunch! The bodies of the golems were crushed like tofu. The golden goblin, realizing that the golems were no shield at all, began to increase its speed again. Quick legs. That must have been the one and only tool that kept him alive until now. But he didn’t know. The faster he went, the more entangled he became in the web we had created.

“I’m used to this kind of hunting. The more experienced the fugitive, the more skillfully he uses the terrain. And professional trackers like us…” Ethan added, “We often create such terrain features on-site.”

Indeed, that was the case. Dozens of bullets narrowly missed the golden goblin because it wasn’t an attack that could be thrown away without a second thought.

“Hey…” It was truly admirable. The direction Ethan pointed with his finger. The golden goblin was running in that exact direction. It was the target point that Ethan had pointed out when the attack by dozens of elves began. And right in front of that target point…

Crunch. Another marksman, Bedivere, was aiming his gun. And…

Taaang! That’s how it ended. A fierce battle of wits followed with the golden goblin. A golden goblin with wide, round eyes and a piercing gaze. “Keee…” He never understood that each and every bullet flying in from all directions was like a spider web entangling him.

Thump! Thud! It was at the same time. The golems that were moving from all directions fell down all at once. The ‘Master of Lyceum’ that Gordon held in such high esteem. Of course, it meant this golden goblin. And…

“Don’t let me come near!” Taaaaaang! Another gunshot rang out around the corpse of the dead golden goblin. Sasa sak! Gordon dug into the ground again like a cockroach because he was after the golden goblin’s corpse.

“…Where should I look?” While the elves fired at Gordon, I examined the golden goblin’s corpse. In the meantime, I was able to pick up a jagged jewel that had fallen out from between the bastard’s eyebrows.

Tiring! A message finally came to mind.

[You have acquired the occupation stone of the Lycion Mine.]
[Would you like to register ownership?]

It was a message from the Awakening System, not Pax. The golden goblin who was the owner of this place, Lysium. I certainly expected a great reward, but I never thought they would give me the entire mine. And…

That wasn’t all.

Sasa sasa sak! Gordon confirmed that I had secured the occupancy seat of the Lycian. The bastard dug a tunnel and quickly started running toward the exit. The guy finally reached the exit. But…

Kwaaaaaaaah! A huge boulder crushed the guy.

“Wow…” I couldn’t even recognize its shape. It’s annoying… The reinforcing stone just fell from the golem’s hand, which was raised stiffly. They were pure and boundless reinforcement stones embedded in Gordon’s body. The golem, having successfully cleared the mole-catching task, soon began to stride toward me with shining blue eyes.

Kuung! A giant kneeling golem. As I gained ownership of the Lycian, the golems that guarded it also came under my command.

“…You’re giving me this too?” It was a Lycium mine that could not be placed in the subspace. If the golems guarded the mine instead, they would be able to enjoy the mine’s harvest without having to deploy any special defense forces.

“It’s a shame that my body is a bit sluggish… But still, this is where it is.”

That was when.

“That… that!” Broke, the artisan who had been observing the situation so far, his eyes were shining as he looked at the jagged slate in my hand.

“I have to work on it!” Huh, the wind that came out roughly made his neatly braided beard fall into two pigtails. Two cheeks flushed bright red. Even the footsteps were restless. I’ve already seen it once. Even when I gave him a bunch of reinforcement stones to work on, Broke had that kind of expression on his face.

It was thanks to that. It was possible to lend him the occupancy seat without any particular worries. Moreover, the condition of the occupation stone, which was bumpy and protruding like a goblin’s skin, was difficult to see as being intact no matter how you looked at it.

Wrrrrr! Broke immediately laid out his tools on the spot, Kagagagagak… I started to trim the occupancy stones while leaving the lights on that I had brought from the logistics center.

“Hey…” The occupation stone of the completed Lycion mine. The subtle blue gem was beauty itself. And…

The change was not limited to beauty.

Swoosh! Kuung! Golems of the Lycian Mines. The joints of the guys who had been making a stiff friction noise all along started to move smoothly as if they had been oiled.

Shushu shushuk! Shushu shu shu shush! Is it time to stretch? As if it were some kind of amusement ride, the golems began to rotate their arms and waists 360 degrees infinitely. The thought of even the slightest brush with that giant boulder makes me dizzy.

While I was watching the golem circus, I asked the craftsman Broke, “…Did you do the work for this?” I couldn’t help but think that way. As soon as the crafting of the occupation stone was finished, the golems started to run wild as if they had taken a tonic. But Broke shook his head.

“…No. I didn’t think about it at all. Well, it’s not the first time I’ve seen a Guardian, but…”

Guardian. That was the name of the golems. The name ‘Guardian’ was quite fitting since they were beings that guarded the mine, but the key was not the Guardian but the ‘Occupation Stone.’

“Actually, this is my first time seeing a jewel like this. I could tell when I touched it. It wasn’t a naturally formed substance… It was a thoroughly intentional and designed object. I just removed the impurities that got caught in its circuitry.”

“Then…” I went back in thought. It was the Chamber of Commerce that originally brought the Lycian mine to Earth. If this Occupation Stone was created by someone’s intention…

‘That someone is most likely the Chamber of Commerce.’ Occupy stones that can be taken over. And the useful resources and territories contained within it. If all this was part of the Chamber of Commerce’s invasion game, I needed to see the whole story. Consolidation that occurred in the United States. And even an unidentified occupation stone.

Luckily, there was someone I could ask. Chuck! Chuck! Elves returning after collecting the rifles they had used. I grabbed Ethan and said, “Let’s go together. I need to meet Ellie.” I was planning to go straight to Elvenheim.

LUNA-CAVE

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