Shire carefully observed the modified goblins not far ahead, remaining vigilant.

"Follow me..." These goblins, crawling on all fours, emitted a muffled sound.

"Hm?" Shire was bewildered. He had heard them say, "Follow me, and we will lead you to become the Divine Chosen."

The voice was robotic, and the mutated goblins’ eyes were vacant. Shire sensed they were being controlled by something and were trying to lure his group of goblins over. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

He thought for a moment, then said, "Follow me, and I’ll make sure you eat your fill."

The mutated goblins trembled in unison. They took two steps forward, then stopped. Their movements seemed to be halted by something, causing them to sway in place for a few moments before saying, "Follow me, and you will gain an Ability."

Shire smiled faintly. "Follow me, and I’ll give you two meals a day."

The mutated goblins trembled again, took a few more steps, then swayed. "Follow me, and you will gain eternal life."

"Follow me, and I’ll make sure you’re full from both meals," Shire said with a grin.

Finally, the mutated goblin at the very front suddenly shrieked in frustration, "Eat, eat, eat, is that all you know?!" then charged at Shire, baring its teeth and claws.

"Get them," Shire ordered immediately.

The surrounding goblins rushed forward with their wooden clubs. They made short work of the mutated goblin, beating it to death in an instant.

The remaining mutated goblins were all trembling like leaves in the wind. They abruptly turned and fled, but bizarrely, their heads remained twisted back toward Shire, chanting, "Follow me, and we will lead you to become the Divine Chosen..."

Shire didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. ’Leave it to goblins. Even mutated and under Control, they can’t shake their greedy, cowardly nature. It’s like their motto is, ’It doesn’t matter how it turns out, just as long as I can say I tried.’’

He was about to lead his subordinates forward when he noticed a large, palm-sized purple tadpole with four short tentacles around its mouth wriggling out of the dead mutated goblin’s mouth.

’What’s this now?’ He looked down as the tadpole wriggled its body, steadily approaching one of the goblins.

The goblin simply smashed the tadpole with a SQUISH.

"They’re parasitized," Shire concluded. ’There’s probably a very dangerous monster up ahead.’

What could it be? A sneering Demon, a raging Giant Beast, or a fire-breathing venomous dragon? He was very curious.

At the same time, he felt conflicted. This underground stone chamber was huge. If there were even larger chambers ahead, it would be a massive gain for him. But with reward came risk, and this risk was uncontrollable.

Just then, another mutated goblin ran over from the distance.

It stopped ten meters from Shire, slowly knelt, and prostrated itself, adopting a humble posture.

"Red Eyes," Shire called out.

"Chief." Cradling a Brain-Eating Monster in one arm and gripping his Longsword in the other, Red Eyes prepared to charge forward and deal with the creature.

"Stop, stop. Just go back to petting your ’cat’," Shire immediately halted his reckless subordinate. "Buck Teeth, take 10 goblins and get the Bang-Bang Fruits ready."

Buck Teeth accepted the order and found several strong goblins to hold the Bang-Bang Fruits and await his command.

Walking forward, Shire heard the prostrated mutated goblin mechanically repeating, "Please follow me, please follow me..."

’Now it’s saying ’please’?’ He chuckled lightly. ’Looks like the enemy isn’t very strong.’

At the same time, he gave Buck Teeth a look, signaling him to follow closely and be ready to throw the Bang-Bang Fruits at a moment’s notice. Buck Teeth nodded to show he understood.

PATTER PATTER. The sound of many goblin footsteps echoed in the vast stone chamber. Shire led his subordinates, following the mutated goblin to the end of the chamber. There stood a three-meter-wide wooden door, already open, revealing a right-angled passageway as wide as the corridor before.

He turned to survey his surroundings. His gaze swept past his numerous subordinates, and he suddenly realized that not a single Brain-Eating Monster had followed them.

Even though the main door was open, not one Brain-Eating Monster had run in. It was as if the Brain-Eating Monsters were being deliberately kept inside the previous square chamber.

’What could be controlling these creatures?’

Shire stroked his chin. He really had no clue, so he decided to follow and see for himself.

He then ordered his subordinates to form three long lines to be ready for any sudden danger.

After the turn, the passage sloped downward. It wasn’t very far, and soon they arrived in a five-meter-high rectangular stone chamber.

This chamber was about twice as long as the previous one. Down the middle were two rows of twelve stone pillars, and along the sides were many two-story stone houses.

The mutated goblin in front of them kept gesturing for them to advance, but Shire walked in fits and starts, using the light from the Glowing Mushrooms to examine the stone houses.

The houses were completely empty. There was nothing inside. Stairs on the side led up to the second floor. ’If this is a Fortress, this part looks more like an underground barracks.’

He touched this and peered at that, growing more and more fond of the place as he looked. ’This space alone could house more than 300 goblins.’

’No matter what the enemy is, I have to take this underground Fortress.’

Wandering around, Shire completely ignored the mutated goblin guide. He even ran up the stairs to the second floor to see the layout inside.

’This doesn’t seem to be where these mutated goblins live,’ he concluded after inspecting a few rooms.

There were absolutely no signs of habitation in any of the stone houses. These mutated goblins possessed at least a sliver of Intelligence; they couldn’t be unaware that this place was habitable.

’Could it be that there’s a better place to live further in? Or is there some danger here that makes it uninhabitable?’

He ran down from the second floor and began to observe his surroundings more carefully.

The guide goblin up ahead gestured more and more frequently, urging Shire to move forward. It was like an electric-powered maneki-neko, its arm waving so fast it was almost a blur.

Shire’s suspicion grew. One of his hands was already gripping the Hand Crossbow on his back.

As they proceeded to the middle of the chamber, he saw a closed wooden door on the left.

The door looked incredibly thick and heavy. A wooden beam, as thick as an adult’s fist and over two meters long, was laid across it as a bar.

Seeing Shire’s interest in the door, the mutated goblin immediately ran in front of him, frantically waving its forelimbs and even trying to pull him away.

Shire tried to go around it, but the creature was relentless. The three tentacles on its mouth began to tremble, and it looked extremely panicked.

’There’s something behind the door. It’s either dangerous, or they don’t want me to see it.’

Just as he was about to heed the mutated goblin’s warning and leave, THUD! The heavy wooden door shuddered with a muffled impact, as if some huge creature had slammed into it.

The sound startled Shire, and he cautiously backed away. But then the door resounded with another loud bang.

"Everyone fall back! Prepare to exit this room!" Shire ordered at once. He saw dust fly up from around the door with each impact and heard a few faint CRACK sounds from the wooden bar. ’A few more hits, and whatever’s behind that door is going to break out.’

BANG! Another impact. This time, a distinct cracking sound was audible. The guide goblin had long since vanished.

Shire led his men toward the entrance. Fortunately, because he’d had them form long lines earlier, their retreat wasn’t too chaotic.

BOOM! With a tremendous crash, the wooden door was smashed open. The bar went spinning through the air, and a giant red worm shot out.

The giant worm’s body was covered in stiff bristles. Its huge, hook-like mandibles splayed open, revealing countless teeth within. Four white, barbed tentacles extended from its mouth.

The giant worm shook its head. Its tentacles kept making a HISSING sound, as if searching for something. A moment later, the giant worm turned toward the goblins and slithered slowly toward them.

Listening to the RUSTLE of the bristles scraping against the stone floor, Shire made a hand signal, ordering his subordinates to get ready.

"Throw!" he commanded. The goblins collectively hurled dozens of Bang-Bang Fruits, but unfortunately, the giant worm was still a bit too far. Only a few of them barely reached it.

"Run!" Without waiting to see the result, he immediately fled with his subordinates.

BOOM! BOOM! A series of explosions went off, followed by a shrill screech. A teeth-grinding scraping sound arose behind Shire—the giant worm had already caught up.

The goblins quickly ran out of the passageway. As he ran, Shire was surprised to see several red balls of flesh roll past his feet.

It was the Brain-Eating Monsters. These little creatures, which his subordinates had been "petting," had broken free at some point and were now rushing toward the giant worm behind them with a CLICK-CLACK sound. Shire also noticed they had already extended their needle-like proboscises.

Before he could think about it, a loud KABOOM echoed from behind him. The giant worm slammed into the wall, screeching, then spun its body, adjusted its angle, and charged straight into the passageway.

By this point, Shire had already run into the previous rectangular stone chamber. His mind raced as he tried to think of a countermeasure.

Ever since leaving the Brain-Eating Monsters’ room, he had noticed that these little red creatures wouldn’t voluntarily leave that chamber. When Red Eyes and the others carried them out, the Brain-Eating Monsters had even struggled.

For some unknown reason, the Brain-Eating Monsters had just actively attacked the giant worm. Although their chances looked grim, Shire felt he might be able to use this to his advantage.

"Everyone, run to the Brain-Eating Monsters’ room!" he shouted, simultaneously ordering his subordinates to drop the sacks of Bang-Bang Fruits they were carrying on their shoulders.

They fled all the way, a constant stream of explosions and the giant worm’s unbroken screeching sounding from behind. The Bang-Bang Fruits had, however, slowed it down somewhat.

By the time Shire and his goblins ran into the Brain-Eating Monsters’ stone chamber and flattened themselves against the wall, the ten-meter-long, barrel-thick red giant worm came crashing in as well.

CLICK-CLACK. All the Brain-Eating Monsters stood up, extending their proboscises.