Chapter 13: The Invested Cave

After off-screening most of the goblins outside with a nice, simple Pandora beam bombardment, I left maybe ten percent of them alive for the donkey to fight. The rest were dead-but importantly, not ash. I still needed the materials.

If that donkey actually listened to my instructions, he should be piling them up by now. Sure, I could just sweep them into Pandora myself after I’m done here, but no. He needed to learn how to gather materials properly. How to scout what I might miss in the future. Basic education for a mule.

Also, I wasn’t crazy to believe an amateur like him to kill demon touched goblin without getting killed, especially with that plate on his back, but that same plate could lift him off the ground if it detected him dying.

There’s also something interesting I got after invading his brain and entity back then…

Anyway-

Most of the goblins farther from the cave were mutated. Their bodies still carried the stretched, torn remnants of what they were before the transformation, like the goblin I demonstrated on in front of the donkey, with limbs and waist blown outward and lengthened grotesquely.

But the goblins closer to the cave?

They didn’t even have those remnants. They were just… blobs.

Meaty, malformed masses-closer to homunculi than goblins. Their numbers exceeded that of the “normal” goblins by a wide margin. And judging by their texture and mana response, they were younger. Freshly made, one could say.

I could assume all the goblins outside were defects-mutations forced by the evolution of their Alpha Specimen, the pack leader. Demon-touched, clearly. But the way it spread? The consistency? The production rate?

It was… odd.

I entered the cave.

“Ugh, this place stinks,” I muttered and closed my mouthpiece. It filtered out most of the odor. Bless technology.

More blobs lurked inside, but they were hardly worth noting. They jiggle. They lash out with some tendrils. They die. Simple.

I cracked my cane. The metal segments loosened and unraveled, collapsing into an electrified whip-blade.

All I had to do was hold the handle and let my brain calculate the arcs. Electricity surged along the blade’s length, guiding it as it lashed outward again and again.

Every swing harvested fodder like I was slicing down cabbages of evil.

Now, why was all this odd?

Simple, really.

Demons that can grant class modifications-true demonization-are only the Seven Twisted Generals. And none of them should be awaken yet. At least not active enough to demonize a goblin king and queen.

And after examining both the goblins outside and these fleshy blobs...

They were all infertile.

How stupid. Demonization is meant for building armies. If you can’t reproduce them, then what’s the point? Defective, completely defective. Not the work of any competent General.

Meaning, whoever-or whatever-did this was mimicking demon-class conversion. And it wasn’t the Generals themselves.

It couldn’t be the Elves. They think they’re too superior to weaponize another race like this.

No demon reports nearby either. As far as I know.

Humans? Possible. Cultists love sticking their hands in cursed soup.

But…

Could it be something from the sealed dungeon instead?

After all, if a demon was sealed in there centuries ago, a closed ecosystem like that could absolutely produce something strange over time. Maybe one specimen developed a defective form of demonization. Maybe the seal weakened enough for something mutated to crawl out.

Maybe this was the result.

Maybe.

Ahhh~

Just thinking about it makes my head tingle.

I couldn’t wait to meet the goblin king and queen and dissect every one of their organs for research~

“Ghahhaha. This is going to be fun.”

After a while, I finally found myself at what should’ve been the “throne room” of the cave.

Honestly? It was not what I expected. In fact, it might even be disappointing. If there's some higher being watching me, their tastes must have offended.

Two thrones stood at the far end of the chamber, carved from crude stone and decorated with bones arranged with surprising symmetry. I could tell someone or something put thought into arranging them.

But no king nor queen sat upon them.

Instead…

Two giant feet rested atop the thrones. Their pair, the rest of the body, was a colossal mass of flesh crammed into the entire chamber like a grotesque boulder made of muscle and half-melted skin. Blob with feet.

A giant mutated goblin. Or at least, something that began as one.

The thing pulsed. Literally pulsed-its surface rising and falling like something breathing in slow, wet agony. Veins big as vines crawled across it, glowing an unhealthy violet from whatever corrupted ichor pumped inside.

From its folds, crevices, and swollen sacs, the smaller blobs I had encountered earlier kept emerging, sliding down with slurps and plops before squirming away.

A whole spawning nest.

“Ugh…” I groaned, genuinely offended. “Here I expected at least a lesser version of Demon Goblin Lord.”

Instead, I got this. This… experimental failure of a biological mistake.

Where was the dramatic boss? The certainty of high-level materials? The Demon Goblin Lord 4 Swords?

Where were my cool battle one-liners going to go?! Into a blob? For shame.

I clicked my tongue.

“This is disgraceful. Even by goblin standards.”

No intelligence. No hierarchy. No structure.

Just mutation without purpose.

I stepped closer, letting Pandora’s sensors sweep the room. The readings were chaotic-mana spiraled in unnatural patterns, and the concentration of corrupted essence centered inside the giant blob was unmistakable.

“Definitely defective demonization…” I murmured, excitement rising again despite the aesthetic disappointment. “Something tried to force an evolution but failed to maintain structural integrity. Fascinating.”

The blob shuddered, and a wet, gargling moan vibrated the floor.

I tilted my head.

“…Though still ugly.”

Another pulsating ripple, another batch of newborn blobs squeezing out of its mass like toothpaste squirts. They plopped onto the floor, wriggling pathetically... then scuttled toward me.

I lifted a finger.

“No. Just-no. You are not worthy to be my enemies.”

I snapped my cane again.

“Let’s perform a mercy killing.”

I swung.

The whip lashed out like a storm of blades, carving the newborn blobs into chunks before they even reached my boots. A second flick, and electricity coursed through the giant mass-eliciting spasms, convulsions, and a long, bubbling groan.

“For what it’s worth,” I sighed, “I am still looking forward to dissecting you.”

The thrill of research always made up for disappointment.

“Let’s make this quick, shall we? I’d like to see what secrets made you so… pathetically fascinating.”

The giant blob began to rise-slowly, grotesquely, like a mountain of flesh remembering it once had a spine.

I smiled behind my mask.

“Good. You’re awake. Now give me everything you’ve got... Let’s name you Blob Lord.”

Several slime-coated tendrils burst out from its surface with a wet splurch, whipping toward me with surprising speed.

“Absolutely not.”

I flicked Pandora’s output limiter off.

ZRRRRT-!!

Thin, precise beams shot from my left palm, slicing each tendril clean off. The severed pieces sizzled, twitched, and melted into puddles.

The creature gurgled.

I countered with a direct Pandora beam-straight to the core mass.

FWOOOOOM-!!

The beam hit dead center. The flesh rippled… then absorbed it.

The light vanished inside its body like I’d fired into a black hole.

“…Excuse me?”

That was new.

Before I could test another setting, my mask’s sensors screamed an alert-an anomaly spike.

{Spatial anomaly detected.}

“-Oh?”

With a reflexive kick, my explosive boots blasted me backward, launching me into the air.

BOOM! I landed atop a jutting rock, cloak fluttering.

I looked back at where I had just stood.

Nothing.

No explosion. No scorch marks. No distortion.

But the air felt wrong, like something had been erased.

“Hooooh… Spatial attack?” I murmured, excitement blooming in my chest. “This thing can do that? Even in this state? You might still be a lesser demon goblin lord all right, a stupider and uglier one all right.”

Then-

“I AM JEALOUS!!”

I shouted it.

Spatial attacks were advanced. Rare. And unfairly cool.

Whoever designed this abomination-whether a failed demon, a sealed dungeon reject, or some cultist with too much free time-had somehow given this blob something I’d been trying to master for years.

I might be able to perfected my personal teleportation after dissecting it?!

The creature trembled violently. Then its flesh expanded. Not grew but spread.

Like a slow-motion tidal wave, its mass surged outward, covering walls, ceiling, and floor. Dozens-no, hundreds-of miniature blobs bubbled out of its surface, rolling onto the stone like malformed eggs hatching mid-motion.

“Uuuuugh, this is gross,” I complained out loud, hopping to another rock as the flesh crept toward my boots. “This is beyond unsanitary.”

The entire room squelched, becoming a living maw.

Using Pandora’s beam again would only feed it, and now I had proof with this sudden growth. Energy-based attacks = lunch for the blob.

“So, I have to rely on my Crackane…” I murmured, flicking the segmented handle. Lightning rippled along the metallic lash.

My eyes narrowed.

“But what would happen if I fed it more? Could it… overheat? Explode? Mutate into something else entirely? Perfected its form?!”

I grinned behind my mask.

“I’m curious.”

The room shuddered. Dozens of tendrils rose like a grotesque forest aiming to impale me.

I chose to be reckless today and feed the lord blob with my beams.

I ignited the floating plates and stepped on it, floating just above the grotesque, meat-infested floor.

The entire chamber writhed beneath me like a single living organ. Every time a tendril lashed upward, my Crackane snapped out, slicing anything that dared approach my personal airspace.

Tendrils erupted from everywhere, the lord blob, the walls, the ceiling, even from the floor that swelled with pulsing flesh.

Bone-like spears shot out at random angles, whistling through the air with enough force to skewer most armors.

My mask chimed repeatedly.

{Spatial anomaly detected.} {Spatial anomaly detected.} {Spatial anomaly dete-

“Yes, yes, I KNOW!”

I twisted midair, a spear grazing my boots as I likely dodged another invisible spatial rip. The attack itself left no trace-no flash, no distortion, nothing to see. I only survived because of the mask’s warnings.

Even so, every instinct told me, if just one of those touched me, I would be in a world of pain.

With probably its last non defective braincells, the blob lord added tactics.

It spewed its offspring, like high-velocity projectiles, firing them at me like a living siege engine.

I off course had no problem at all handling every single onslaught like a game, definitely no problemo

Until one nearly succeeded-

A blob shattered my mana barrier and latched onto my head.

“WHAT-?!”

If not for the barrier absorbing the initial impact, that thing would’ve snapped my neck.

Once it stuck, it immediately expanded, stretching over my head, pulsing as it tried to smother every sense I had. Slimy tendrils probed desperately for an opening.

It would’ve crawled into my ears. My nose. My mouth.

If not for my mask.

“OH, ABSOLUTELY NOT!”

I wrapped Crackane around my own face and electrified myself without hesitation.

BZZZZZT!!!!

The blob spasmed violently and flung itself off me, smoking and twitching on the floor. I barely felt the electricity. Having several counter measures to your own creations had perks.

Still… a shiver ran down my spine.

The thought alone, A blob potentially taking control of my head… Was nearly traumatizing.

“…All right. That’s enough.”

If this thing wanted to escalate, then so would I.

I summoned a mana ball from Pandora. It began small.

Then expanded. And expanded. And expanded, glowing like a newborn, glorious sun forced into the shape of a sphere.

“I gave you an inch,” I said, guiding the blazing sphere with a flick of my left hand as it carved through the room, purging the fleshy infestation. “But you want a mile, huh?”

The lesser blobs vaporized as the radiant sphere passed through them.

The chamber was cleansed all except for the lord blob itself.

It gurgled. Roared. Sending several tendrils to stop me.

“THEN TAKE IT ALL!!!”

I hurled the sun straight down its throat and forced it inward, compressing it, condensing it force-feeding the blob lord with raw energy.

“GRRRRHHHHHHH-!!”

Its whole body convulsed violently, shaking the cave.

I laughed.

“Bon appétit- GHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!”

WOMP

...

…

…

Surprisingly, the thing actually ate the giant mana ball.

But then the lord blob began to swell. And swell. And swell.

Its whole body trembled violently as if it suddenly remembered it was never meant to handle this much mana. I readied myself for the inevitable-meat popcorn splattering across the cave ceiling

But instead, its form abruptly collapsed inward.

It condensed into a sphere. A black, egg-like mass-smooth, glossy, taller than an average Caucasian male, and radiating a dense malice that prickled even through my mask’s filters.

“Oooooh~ So my hypothesis was kind of accurate.”

 I floated closer, humming in delight.

“Whatever demonized the goblin king and queen lacked the mana needed for proper evolution. And I just fed it everything it was missing. And maaaybe a bit little too extra?”

A crack formed.

Then another.

Then-
 it split open.

“KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHHHH!!!”

The creature that crawled out made my scientist heart sing.

A muscular goblin-towering, grotesquely proportional, with two heads sharing a single thick neck-stump, each head with different expressions: one snarling with jagged bone-teeth jutting outward, the other grinning with gums split open to expose raw, pulsing flesh.

Four arms-two bulky, two unnaturally long-sprouted from its torso, each coated with a glossy, obsidian-black exoskeleton. As it emerged, it used all four hands to tear apart the shell it was born from.

The shell dissolved into liquid shadow and solidified instantly.

Four black swords, one for each hand. Blades shaped like warped vertebrae, each humming with unstable demonic mana.

Bile dripped from its jaws. Veins pulsed like angry cords across its swollen muscles. Its legs bent backwards like an animal ready to pounce.

A perfect fusion of King and Queen goblin. A demon-touched, fully realized Demon Goblin Lord. A perfect army maker that could reproduce, defend itself, and had the personal power to be a menace in the battlefield.

“Sorry bud,” I said, raising Pandora, “but this is exactly what I wanted.”

Normally, Demon Goblin Lords only evolved from a demonized goblin king-queen pair or appeared naturally in the deepest of dungeon floors.

But to me?

Just a very, very exotic resource.

“No games, yeah?”

I dashed in with explosive boots, the cave flashing with bursts of kinetic propulsion.

It reacted instantly, swinging its four swords in crisscross slashes to keep me from closing in, forcing me to stay at mid-range where its reach dominated.

Too bad for it I was also a mid-range specialist, and I’d lose if we both fight in the same distance. I had to go deep.

Pandora beams ricocheted around the chamber, forcing its guard open. Crackane lashed at joints, veins, anything exposed for even a fraction of a second.

“…between you and me…”

A lucky strike-or rather, a very intentional one-let Crackane slice across the veins in its lower right wrist.

It healed fast, bubbling black flesh sealing over the wound, but the delay was enough to slow its next attack.

Its two sets of eyes flared violet.

My visor glowed.

{Spatial anomaly detected.}

“I KNOW!”

I teleported.

It hurt-blood filled my mouthpiece, my head ringing from the defective teleport module. But I landed right where I wanted to be!

In front of its chest. Inside its guard. Too close for blades to matter. No more annoying tendrils sprouting suddenly anymore!

“…I’m much closer to the Demon Lord,” I whispered, “…than you are to me.”

There we go with the one liner! Ah, I’m so cool!

I slammed Pandora directly against its sternum.

All the kinetic force it absorbed since the pass couple of weeks, even Serah’s ridiculous spammed consecutive charges was stored inside.

I released it. But not wildly.

I distributed it. Not just blowing a hole through its chest. It would regenerate that too easily.

No, I ruptured every fatal organ at once.

Both brains. Its heart-detonated. Neck shattered internally.

Then a chain of internal explosions ripping through the body in controlled, surgical bursts.

pop pop pop pop pop-

Ah I might need to invent soda in this world.

The Demon Goblin Lord convulsed, then collapsed like a discarded puppet.

Dead.

“Sheesh,” I sighed, placing hands on hips. “I just made a handful of useless stones into a diamond-”

Something twitched.

From inside the corpse, a small shape jumped at me-fast, desperate.

Fortunately, my mana barrier had recovered some time ago.

The creature smacked face-first into it with a pathetic splat, like slapping a wall.

“So… you are the thing that evolved the damn thing.”

I’ve seen a lot of things in my elven-age years. And with a certain overwhelming wisdom and maybe, miggggght, illegally entering soooome sealed dungeons, I could practically guess what something was.

-but I had never seen something like this.

It looked like an insect. Too many legs. Too many joints. Its body proportions were wrong, like something designed rather than born. Under its belly was an unnatural mark-dark, circular, incomplete-like an eclipse frozen in flesh.

I didn’t know what that meant.

It could just be an evolutionary trait.

This thing had to be the specimen that escaped from the dungeon.

…Yet this bug was too unnatural. Not wild. Not chaotic.

Made.

And that eclipse mark…

No, not a mark. A crest.

“There’s no way…”

“Nee-sama, how would you achieve that?”

An even voice asked me back then. If I ever went through with the N.E.O.

“I think something like a black sun would be cool,” I answered casually.

“Black sun?”

“I mean eclipse,” I clarified. “Didn’t the sun become black momentarily?”

“Theatrical,” it sighed. “Even when doing something so terrifying as that…”

It went quiet for a moment.

“…How about if there are Black Suns that helped you with that?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I snapped back. “Only I am allowed to work on it.”

There was no knowledge of anything that could evolve into this. I knew almost everything up until fifty years ago because of that Core.

And there was no way a specimen could evolve this drastically in under fifty years.

No way.

“Mi… This is not your doing. Right?”

The thing stopped slamming itself against my mana barrier.

Then it turned. It tried to run.

“Nu-uh.”

I caught it instantly-mana barrier layered between it and me.

God, I was slightly tempted to let it crawl under my skin.

But my [Heretic] title only protected my entity from being controlled.

If my body was hijacked biologically? I wouldn’t be able to stop it. Not without breaking-and permanently damaging-several important things.

Yes. I learned that the hard way. And yes. Those breaking and damaging several things was the backup plan afterward.

I pulled a glass containment capsule from Pandora and sealed the specimen inside. Pandora, unfortunately, couldn’t store living entities. So, I could only slip it into my pocket.

“Now…”

I’d eventually stumble into each other sooner or later. No need to worry.

Yes. No need to worry at all.

I turned my attention back to the Demon Goblin Lord’s corpse.

Oh, the possibilities.

The flesh-dense with demonized mana.

No need to worry

The bones-compressed, reinforced, ideal as spine reinforcement.

No need to…

The four swords-demon-forged without a smith, priceless as research samples.

No need…

The core, oh, the core alone could power several large-scale experiments or be reconstructed into a mana gem.

I had literally turned a mass of worthless carbon into a diamond with my mana blast earlier…

“…Tch.”

Who was I kidding. My excitement had already been ruined moments ago. I couldn’t even be giddy for my spoil of war anymore.

I absorbed the corpse into Pandora. I could dissect it later.

That insect had to be a dungeon evolution. It had to be.

I refused to believe otherwise. Even when the evidence screamed at me.

“…I need to see that dungeon myself.”

With that, I left the cave with a little more velocity than I would like to admit.

つづく