Lord: Starting from a Goblin Nest

After some brief preparations, Ron and his group followed the two goblin younglings to the campsite. The militiamen and scouts on watch there had clearly not noticed the two younglings’ disappearance; they all looked astonished to see them returning from outside.

”Lord Ron, what...?” A militiaman stepped forward and bowed. ”How did those two get out? We didn’t even notice!”

”That’s not the point,” Ron said with a wave of his hand. ”Go back and get more men. Have them guard the perimeter. We’re going in to investigate.”

”If we disappear, don’t panic. Go and inform Klade that he is to temporarily take charge of everything, understand?”

”Yes! But—”

”There are no buts.”

Ron led the way into the deserted camp and quickly found the spot where the wooden crate had been. The area was covered with a canvas, which bore the muddy footprints of the two goblin younglings.

Apparently, they had used it as a trampoline before being teleported.

”Just as I thought, it’s connected to this place,” Ron said, gesturing for Sera to pull back the canvas and start digging right here. ”Let’s see what’s buried underneath!”

The task wasn’t difficult at all. After only a few shovelfuls of dirt, the tip of Sera’s iron shovel hit something hard with a faint clink.

”Be careful!” Silvia quickly bent down. ”From the sound of it, it must be stone!”

With their combined efforts, a dusty gray stone slab was finally uncovered. It was carved with complex patterns, and Ron remembered seeing these markings somewhere not long ago.

His Weaving Introduction ability activated, and Ron recalled every detail of the monument he had visited earlier—the patterns on this stone slab were a perfect match for the ones there!

”And it’s hollow,” Delaford said, shrinking back. ”Don’t tell me another part of that queen is buried right here, is it?”

”How could that be...” Before Aive could even finish speaking, the stone slab suddenly began to hum. Its patterns were instantly filled with flowing, liquid-like red light. The group didn’t even have time to cry out in alarm before they all vanished on the spot.

”Th-They’re really gone!” The militiamen watching from outside the camp were startled. They had been keeping an eye on the group, thinking they could lend a hand if anything went wrong. They never imagined it would all happen so fast; they only registered what had happened after Ron and the others had completely vanished.

”What do we do now?”

”What are you standing around for, you idiots!” the goblin scout snapped, kicking each of them in the calf. ”Get moving! Go find Lord Klade! What were Lord Ron’s orders?!”

Never mind how Klade received the news; let’s focus on Ron and his group. The sudden, blinding red light had nearly seared Ron’s eyes, followed immediately by a nauseating wave of weightlessness and dizziness. By the time his sight returned and the world swam into focus from a blur of black and white, he found himself in a completely unfamiliar place.

’Don’t tell me we’ve been... oh, good.’ Ron quickly scanned his surroundings. Aive and the others were lying sprawled out around him. ”You’re all here.”

”What... what happened? Where are we?” The others slowly sat up. They were all relatively unharmed, but the dizziness hadn’t faded, so they couldn’t get a firm footing just yet.

”How are you standing so steady?” Sera asked, looking at Ron in amazement. ”I feel like the ground beneath me is tilting straight up. I can’t keep my balance at all!”

”A Teleportation Array... of course,” Silvia said, pressing a hand to her forehead. ”I’ve only read about this. Most people have a severe adverse reaction the first time they’re teleported. It seems our benefactor is a special exception.”

”If you can move around normally, could you take a look? There must be a stone slab here similar to the other one, serving as the base for the Array. We should be able to use it to get back.”

Ron raised his Eternal Flame Lamp—he had placed the candle from before inside it to make it portable—and, as she’d suggested, illuminated his surroundings. A few steps away, set into a stone wall, he saw another slab that looked like it was cast from the very same mold as the one at the camp.

He reached out and, after confirming it was safe, pressed his hand against it. But nothing happened.

”It’s out of Magic Power,” Ron said, pulling back his hand with a slight frown. ”The engravings indicate that it should be able to recharge itself, but there’s no telling how long it’ll take before we can use it again.”

’My study of Enchantment wasn’t for nothing, it seems.’ Even if he couldn’t create Magic Items of this caliber, Ron was still capable of analyzing the enchantments on existing ones.

”But that doesn’t make any sense!” A goblin, after all, is a goblin. Delaford’s unique solution made him the first one besides Ron to shake off the effects of the teleportation—he’d planted his hands on the ground and ”stood” up on them, his body upside down. ”Why were those two little ones teleported to the barn?”

”You have the nerve to talk! This is definitely your fault!” Aive snapped. ”You mentioned ’another part of the queen,’ so the Teleportation Array must have taken that as a command... right?”

The atmosphere suddenly froze.

If Aive was right and Delaford’s words had triggered the teleportation... then if Delaford had spoken about the remains of the Last Queen of Farama, didn’t that mean they were now in...?

From some unknown direction, a light breeze wafted through, and the seemingly random holes in the walls began to whistle a haunting, plaintive melody. The sound made everyone’s hair stand on end. Though still unsteady on their feet, they scrambled to draw their weapons, bracing for a great foe.

”Okay... looks like no enemies are coming. We’re safe for now,” Victoria said after a moment, letting out a small sigh of relief as she got to her feet.

”This looks like a cavern. We couldn’t be underneath the monument, could we? If so, there probably won’t be too many Undead Creatures.”

”I don’t think so,” Silvia said, twitching her nose. ”Remember how you dug up that stone slab? If they went to the trouble of building a cavern like this, why would they just hastily bury the thing they wanted to protect under the bricks of a monument? That doesn’t make any sense.”

”In any case, the Teleportation Array is useless for now. We might as well explore these passages a bit. We might find some clues, or even a way straight out of here.”