Stab. Pull. Drag.
This became Kang Ji-Won's entire world.
Stab. The blunt end of the crowbar sinks into the wet moss.
Pull. The muscles of his shoulders and back scream as he hauls his torso forward.
Drag. The sickening, wet sound of his destroyed left leg trailing behind him, leaving a glistening dark trail of blood on the glowing floor.
The pain.
It was constant now. A burning, sickly throb that joined the chattering of his teeth—Tak... Tak... Tak—to form a miserable rhythm.
Ten feet.
Behind him, the rippling blue tear of the Gate shimmered. It was a cold, seductive light, promising a return. Promising defeat.
Don't look.
Ahead of him was the cave entrance. A black mouth swallowing the light.
Five feet.
The smell of blood (his and the monster's) was strong, but a new smell was drifting out of the cave. A sour, acrid smell. The smell of old urine and rotting meat. The smell of... a nest.
He reached the edge.
The glowing blue moss stopped abruptly at the line of the cave entrance, as if afraid to go inside.
In front of him, the floor was cold stone.
Stab.
The crowbar didn't sink.
Klak!
It hit solid rock.
"Ghgh..."
The crowbar slipped, and he almost fell on his face.
No. Don't pass out. Not now.
He changed his method.
He began using the crowbar as a true crutch. Stab. Lean. Pull.
He entered the first inch of the cave.
Darkness.
The darkness was absolute.
Outside, there were the purple and red moons, and the glowing fungi. Here, there was nothing.
He was blind.
Totally blind.
Hah... hah... hah...
The sound of his breathing suddenly seemed terrifyingly loud in the enclosed space.
Drip... drip... drip.
The sound of water dripping somewhere deep inside.
Stab. Lean. Pull.
He crawled forward into the pitch black.
Five feet inside the cave.
Ten feet.
He was crawling, using the left cave wall as a guide, his free hand feeling the cold, slimy rock.
Where are they? Baek said they were in the "Main Cave"... is this it?
What if this is just the entrance? What if there's a maze?
Tak... Tak... Tak...
Panic. It was crawling at the edge of his throat. I'm blind. I'm wounded. I'm crawling into the unknown. This is stupid. This is...
Thp...
His free hand, feeling along the wall, touched something...
It wasn't stone.
It was soft. And brittle. Like... rotting cloth?
No.
It's hair.
Ji-Won froze.
Something cold, coarse, and covered in hair was under his fingertips.
He let out a muffled yelp and yanked his hand back.
What is that? What the hell...
...Goblin corpses.
He remembered.
They're here.
He took a deep breath, trying to control his stomach. He reached out his trembling hand again.
He felt around in the dark.
Yes. A small shoulder. Tough skin like tanned leather. A pointed ear.
It's one of them.
"Good," he whispered. The word was swallowed by the darkness.
The contract.
His other hand, holding the crowbar, let go. His hand dove into his blood-soaked pants pocket.
Where is it?
His numb fingers fumbled. He found them.
Three thin, hard plastic squares. "Retrieval Tags."
He pulled one out.
He felt in the dark, searching for the dead goblin's chest. He found a flat mass. Good enough.
He pressed the tag onto the corpse.
Click.
A small mechanical sound.
...Beep.
A tiny green light, the size of a pinhead, lit up on the tag.
It wasn't a strong light. It wasn't a flashlight.
But in this absolute darkness... it was like a sun.
The faint green light illuminated the scene in front of him.
Oh... my God.
The scene was revolting.
It wasn't one goblin.
He had crawled into a pile of them.
The three bodies were lying on top of each other. Small, olive-green skin, small protruding yellow teeth. They all had the same injury: their throats were torn out.
This... this was the Shadow Goblin's "nest." This wasn't "leftovers." This was its "pantry."
One... two... three.
They're all here.
Ji-Won felt a strange wave of... relief? No, not relief. Something harder.
I did it.
He reached out, still trembling, and stuck the other two tags onto the other two bodies.
Click. Click.
Beep. Beep.
Three small green lights now lit up the small cave, like three demon eyes.
The lights illuminated Ji-Won's blood-and-sweat-streaked face, and the disgusting pile of corpses.
He had accomplished the first part of the mission.
And now... the impossible part.
I have to drag... all of this...
He looked at the pile of bodies (weighing collectively at least 150 pounds).
He looked at his destroyed leg.
He looked at the cave entrance ten feet away, and the Gate another thirty feet beyond that.
How?