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Shinggg!

Vaan closed the hundred-yard gap and hacked off the goblin champion’s head in a silver flash with lightning-fast speed before it could cause another loud commotion.

A Peak Rank 3 monster was slain in an instance.

However, its earlier roar and attack were more than enough to be heard by every being within several miles of it.

“What an unpleasant creation. But this is just one of the possibly many abominable creations in this place,” Vaan muttered.

=====

«Normal State»

[Total Defense: 485 → 357 (↓128) (High-level Rank 3 → Mid-level Rank 3)]

[Total Strength: 401 → 301 (↓100) (Mid-level Rank 3 → Low-level Rank 3)]

[Total Speed: 377 → 285 (↓92) (Mid-level Rank 3 → Low-level Rank 3)]

=====

After he exited the Lycan Transformation, he immediately felt a sense of weakness that only lasted a few breaths before it disappeared.

Shortly after, Vaan quickly left the area without hesitation.

Although the loud commotion was unlikely to attract the attention of every creature that overheard it, there would still be quite a number of monsters drawn to the area.

…

Sometime later, Vaan was already more than six hundred yards from the area, hiding in the gap between two closely positioned rock pillars.

He kept perfectly still without moving a muscle, his breath so faint it was uncertain whether he was breathing, and his heartbeat slowed by several paces, allowing him to blend into the background.

At the same time, his eyes were closed, only relying on his other senses to detect the number of enemies rushing over to the goblin champion’s location.

From several goblins passing by, their numbers increased to the dozens. But within the next while, the number of goblins passing by spiked into the hundreds.

Sensing so many goblins passing through from the northwestern direction, Vaan confirmed with certainty that he was heading in the right direction.

‘However, there are still so many goblins in this pocket realm, not to mention all the other kinds of abominable creatures the Fallen Witch had created in this place. It’ll be difficult to get close to the evil witch’s lair,’ Vaan contemplated.

Hunting the monsters in small groups would take too much time while slaying them in large numbers would draw too much attention.

‘I will be in trouble if the Fallen Witch had managed to create many nasty Rank 4 beings through her body transmutation experiments,’ Vaan understood.

Furthermore, he also had to consider the Fallen Witch’s own power and not just her creations.

‘The dangers of the Red Goblin Mountains had only noticeably increased in the past several years while the goblin caves had been known for a much longer period. Yet, no one discovered such a large pocket realm until now?’

Vaan pondered for a moment before he realized his entry into the pocket realm might have put him in a different region from the cave entrance.

Given that magic could fundamentally do anything, it wouldn’t be difficult to create an artificial rock wall to seal off the rest of the pocket realm from the main goblin cave area.

However, there was also the possibility that the first and second stratum had been separated from the start, meaning the pocket realm had always been cut off from the rest of the goblin cave.

‘Then did the Fallen Witch stumble into the pocket realm by luck?’ Vaan wondered.

More importantly, how long had it been since the Fallen Witch became one and was allowed to freely conduct her forbidden research and experiments in the pocket realm?

Time was a good measure of Fallen Witch’s growth.

Nevertheless, while Vaan was idly pondering about the Fallen Witch’s strength and origins, the goblin movements in the area ended, allowing him to move on from his hidden location.

‘If I want to get close to the evil lair, I need to bait away the monsters guarding around it,’ Vaan mused.

Fortunately, he had prepared something of that sort.

After traveling four miles further, Vaan located a relatively large rock mountain in the distance, surrounded by a flat field with countless large metal cages in place.

Each of the large cages contained a different species of monsters and beasts.

‘These creatures are all captured and reared for the Fallen Witch’s experiments…’ Vaan concluded after briefly observing the region from a distance.

Goblins were considered one of the weakest monster races. And yet, goblins freely roamed the region while stronger monsters like cyclops and wyverns were held in captivity.

Most likely, it was because the goblins were easier to control than the other monsters.

Nevertheless, Vaan slowly shifted his attention to another area further south of the rock mountain lair and flat fields.

It looked like a city.

And just looking at the countless structures of primitive designs within the city, he could tell they were the goblins’ dwellings.

However, the sheer number of dwellings in the region looked like it could accommodate at least thirty thousand, and this was just a rough estimation from a glance.

The difference could be much greater.

That being said, he did not see many goblins, whether they were inside the goblin city or patrolling around the fields and lair.

‘The security around the lair is much looser than I expected. Is it because the Fallen Witch wasn’t expecting an intruder? Or did the Fallen Witch already send out her main force to deal with the punitive expedition group?’ Vaan speculated.

Either way, he had the initiative and advantage while he was still in the dark.

‘But where is the Plant-type Abomination—No, Lady Aeliana being held?’ Vaan scanned the field of caged monsters with his enhanced eyesight.

However, he failed to spot any creature that looked remotely close to a Plant-type Abomination.

Shortly after, he activated his Magic Vision and saw large amounts of mana being drawn towards the rock mountain lair.

At the same time, he could tell the antimagic spores were denser in the area from the ongoing system notifications in the background.

For a brief moment, the possibility of Lady Aeliana being the Fallen Witch crossed his mind.

However, he immediately ruled out the possibility.

Lady Aeliana couldn’t be the Fallen Witch. There were too many factors that denied it.

It had only been three years since she turned, whereas all the clues he collected on the Fallen Witch’s experiments suggested that the Fallen Witch had been around for far, far longer.