Return of the Woodcutter

"Like goblins, hum?" Aito said. He already knew most of that because of his recently acquired knowledge, but playing the part would only add to his credibility as a newcomer 

Also, something had intrigued him during the attack. While the others had heard "BU  SU GLAAA!" he heard "BU SU ATTACK!"

He doubted BU SU was a name, more like two other words. If he was correct, it meant that the hobs' language was similar to the goblins', and since he now knew the goblin's language, he could understand parts of hobs' sentences. 

'It could come in handy.' Aito thought, 'or not… who knows?' 

The team quickly gathered the soul cores, bolts, and arrows, then continued their explorations of the fifth floor. 

On the way, they encountered numerous ambushes. Aerial attacks, poison arrows, and even hobgoblins coming out of some buildings' main entrances. 

Although the hobs were no match for the team, their ambushes were still annoying to deal with. And the further away they moved from the center of the city, the more hobs there were. 

The scenery also changed, becoming grimmer. Black buildings with cracks and broken windows. A few carriages painted in black were decorated with what appeared to be human hands. 

It made no sense for carriages to be around these parts. As far as Aito knew, there weren't any horses in this city to pull them. 

"Hum? Why are there carriages you ask?" Rey said, "Well, it's true that there are no horses in this city. But sometimes, for the fun of it, hobs use captured humans to pull a carriage before eventually killing them. Or they could also pull it themse—" 

At that moment, a carriage driven by a hob entered the main street at full speed. Grabbing ropes to pull the carriage were ten hobgoblins, madly running towards the team. 

On the vehicle's rooftop, four hobs archers took aim and fired arrows at Aito and the siblings. 

'The fuck?' Aito cursed internally, deploying his shield to protect himself. Gwen's memories were blurry, so they didn't cover every detail of a floor, just like the carriage driven and ridden by hobgoblins. So, he hadn't expected this turn of events. 

"GLAAA UL MUMU!!!" (ATTACK ** HUMANS!) 

The ten hobs pulling the carriage suddenly let go of the ropes and stepped aside, out of the vehicle's path that was heading directly for Aito and his team. Four archers that were on the roof also abandoned the vehicle. 

"Sheyla!" Aito shouted. 

"Already on it!" She replied, an arrow nocked on her bowstring. She charged it with aura, revealing bright blue patterns akin to electric circuits on the arrowhead, and released it 

Flying straight and true, the arrow hit a front wheel, impeding the mechanism with frost. Ice rapidly spread to the wheel, freezing the material to its very core. The wheel detached from the main structure, passed under a back wheel, hindering it. 

Unbalanced and damaged, the carriage titled then fell, deviating from its course, ramming into a nearby decrepit building. 

Hobgoblins that appeared to be inside it, exited the vehicle. Battered, bruised, covered in black green blood. 

Aito and Sheyla fired bolts with their repeaters, rapidly killing them one by one. In the meantime, Ogoro covered for them, taking care of the ten hobs rushing towards them. 

Sword in hand, Ogoro cleaved a bloody path. Using steel wires or his binding string was still new to him, so he simply used them to destabilize his enemies in battle or trap them from time to time. 

In a matter of a few minutes, the fight was over. The archers had fled, but it mattered little. 

"Pfiou! Splendid fight young lads and old lad," Rey commented. 

"Are you doing that on purpose?" Ogoro asked, apparently pissed. 

"What do you mean, old lad?" 

"Stop calling me old lad, old man. I'm saying that every time we run into something new, you warn us just before it happens. I don't think that's a coincidence." 

Standing on the side, Aito approved silently—although he already knew the reason. Next to him, Sheyla whispered, "Something is odd about that tour guide." 

Of course, the siblings would notice by now that something wasn't right with Rey. Even a fool would have figured it out at some point, well, hopefully. 

"What are you saying? Why would I warn you at the last minute on purpose?" Rey said, innocently, "I fail to see why it is in my interest. If you were to die, I die. I cannot fight all those hobs alone. Nor would I be able to return by myself when we're so far away from the center of the city." 

Aito shook his head. The moderator was making less and less sense. If he was playing a veteran challenger, Rey should be able to fight a bit, or at least pretend he could. 

Rey hadn't even budged a toe during ambushes and always stood on the side. Moreover, Aito had noticed that no hobs targeted him until now. As if Rey was invisible to them. 

'No matter, we've seen enough for one day,' Aito thought. 

Aito and the siblings had almost cleared the quest to ascend to the next floor by now. It just required a challenger to kill fifty hobgoblins on his own. The rewards were the same as always. Tower Points and Glory Points plus access to the next floor. 

Although the counter of killed hobs would reset tomorrow, he didn't want to be too greedy. Also, his true goal was to get that item. 

It was supposed to be an invisibility cloak of sorts. 

He knew it wouldn't be easy since the current holder could practically turn invisible and avoid him whenever it felt like it. 

Well, if Aito really couldn't find the hobgoblin in possession of the cloak, then so be it. Losing time over an item was stupid. 

Tomorrow, they would speed things up. He hadn't used the Suicidal Horn today because he wanted to familiarize himself with the enemy first. 

Thanks to today's exploration, he had figured out where to blow to the horn to have a satisfying result. Attracting numerous hobs was good, but too many of them and his team would be swarmed. 

"Just leave him be, Ogoro," Aito said, patting his companion's shoulder. "The sun will set in a few hours; we better return now before it gets dark." 

"Indeed, wise words. Listen to your friend, old lad," Rey said. "I'll lead the wa—" 

"No, I'll do it," Aito interrupted. 

"But…" 

"Don't worry, we'll still give you food once we get back safely to the cathedral," Aito said, smirking 

He had memorized the way already. It wasn't that difficult with his blurry knowledge and the experience he had acquired during this exploration. 

Moreover, the road back wasn't so complex it'd require a guide. Aito had just hoped the moderator would bring him enough bad luck and eventually lead him to the special monster in possession of the invisibility cloak while hoping to see an entertaining fight—well, he realized now that good luck was maybe what he needed for the encounter to happen.