The Virgin Hero Who Fought in the Dungeon for 20 Years Returned to the Surface Only to Find the Population of the World Has Dropped Drastically, with a Male-to-Female Ratio of 1:1000 - 41

Chapter 41: Goblin Lord

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“Let’s run!”

“Ye-Yeah!

Sayaka kicked a goblin in the face, creating an opening. On the street, two young women, likely on their way home from shopping, had their throats slit wide open. Their lifeless bodies lay on the ground, faces frozen in disbelief as they gazed up at the sky.

“Ugh-“

Ryuuto swallowed his shout of anger. Just as Sayaka had said, there was little he could do in this situation. Around them, former explorers and women with some degree of combat training were fighting against the goblin with all of their might, but more and more people were dying on the street. 

Is running away in silence really something a man should do?

Before his hesitation could take root, a heavy, dull sound echoed through the streets. A squad of police officers had arrived on the other side of the road, raising their rifles and opening fire in unison. In the blink of an eye, the goblins were cut down, and hope returned to the faces of the people. But just then, as if it had been waiting for the perfect moment, a massive, blue-black ogre emerged from the station’s exit.

“A Goblin Lord…”

Someone murmured. Indeed, inside a dungeon where skills and magic could be used, this estimated C-rank monster might not have been an insurmountable threat. However, in a world where the divine blessing that allowed humans to rise against monsters couldn’t be used, this creature—known as the chieftain of the goblins—was far more dangerous than encountering a grizzly bear in the middle of a city. Standing over four meters tall, its massive frame was encased in ominous armor. It wielded a colossal battle axe in its right hand and carried a shield as large as a wall in its left. Climbing onto an abandoned vehicle blocking the road, the Goblin Lord let out a thunderous roar.

“Hiii-!”

A primal fear seemed to take hold. The women who had been fighting back just moments ago now lost all of their morale. Yet the trained police officers refused to back down. They aimed their weapons and rained bullets upon the Goblin Lord. Muzzle flashes flickered in rapid succession, and the monster’s body convulsed as if repelled by the impact.

“We did it…!”

One of the police officers exclaimed. But the Goblin Lord remained unfazed. Dropping from the car’s roof, it rolled its neck from side to side with an audible crack. Then, slamming the butt of its battle axe into the concrete, it casually tore the front door off a nearby vehicle and hurled it towards the police squad with effortless ease. With a sinister whooshing sound, the door traced a parabolic arc through the air. A deafening crash, like a thunderclap, followed. The police squad was obliterated with a single attack from the Goblin Lord. 

One officer, struck directly by the flying door, was reduced to an unrecognizable mass of flesh. Her remains splattered across the pavement. The few who still clung to life had abandoned their rifles, writhing in agony where they had fallen. The Goblin Lord muttered something in an inhuman tongue and almost immediately the goblins across the battlefield regained their strength and resumed their savage assault.

Sayaka, having emptied her Glock, swung its grip into the forehead of an oncoming goblin.

“Run away! At least… At least you must escape from this place!”

Ryuuto saw two figures bursting out from the shadow of the car ahead. A young woman in office attire was pulling along a little girl dressed in a kindergarten uniform. Behind them, a goblin wielding a knife was chasing after them. A sharp pain flared in Ryuuto’s head, as if his brain were burning.

What is it that you desire?

From the depths of his memory, someone posed the question to him.

“The answer is obvious…”

“Huh?”

A calm smile spread across Ryuuto’s face. He already knew what he had to do. At first glance, dealing with monsters that crawled out of dungeons was a task that could only be handled by the firepower of the armed forces. That had been the common sense of the surface world. But Ryuuto disagreed. Ryuuto quickly moved to help the woman and the child. He was unarmed, while the goblin had a weapon—though in most cases, their weapons were nothing more than rusty knives or crude sticks. However, goblins were cunning, filthy survivors with the tenacity of cockroaches. Ryuuto hit the goblin straight on its head and took the knife from its grasp. 

“Alright.”

Now he had a weapon. With the knife in hand, he used the terrain to his advantage, methodically hunting down the goblins. Even without the blessings of skills or magic, his strength far surpassed theirs. He targeted their throats, slashing one after another. But the blade was already dull to begin with. After cutting down two or three, the knife became slick with fat, rendering the blade useless. He took another weapon from his fallen enemies every time his current weapon dulled, steadily advancing toward his goal.

“!?”

Suddenly, a shadow loomed over him. He dove to the side out of reflex and the ground exploded, sending up a cloud of dust. A wave of searing heat scorched his skin, momentarily robbing him of his vision. Tumbling across the ground, he barely managed to crack open his right eye.

A Goblin Lord. This was one of the reasons surface dwellers feared monsters. Unlike explorers, who could only use skills and magic inside dungeons, monsters that emerged onto the surface could wield magic freely. The Goblin Lord had cast a Fireball at Ryuuto. Within a dungeon, it was one of the first spells a novice mage would learn and not to mention, a Goblin Lord wasn’t good at magic. Fireball cast by a Goblin Lord wasn’t particularly powerful by the dungeon standard, but on the surface, its power was comparable to a mortar round.

“Ugh.”

As he struggled to stand, he saw the Goblin Lord aiming a battle axe at him. He could see flash of magic energy gathering at the tip of the blade. This goblin had an unusual level of proficiency in magic. Normally, monsters couldn’t accumulate enough magical power in just a few seconds, let alone cast spells in rapid succession. He tried to move, but the Goblin Lord finished its incantation first. A mass of intense heat shot out from the glowing red axe. If that thing hit him directly, Ryuuto would burn to death. 

Just as Ryuuto twisted his body to dodge, a figure suddenly appeared and shoved him aside.

“Sayaka!”

As he was flung away, Ryuuto caught sight of the person who had pushed him.

Sayaka was smiling and in the next second, the entire sidewalk was obliterated by the flaming axe. The shockwave sent guardrail fragments and pieces of tactile paving flying through the air, each one visible in excruciating detail. And then—he saw Sayaka’s body tumbling like a ragdoll.

Ryuuto felt an unbearable heat surge through his skull, his rage burning away all remaining reason in his head. He could hear the Goblin Lord’s ominous laughter from the distance and at the same time, he could hear the distinct click of an axe being lodged back to its place. 

“…Bastard.”

Ryuuto shot to his feet and sprinted toward the subway exit. That had been his target from the start. The goblins were coming out onto the surface through gates connecting the subway exit to dungeons. Monsters coming out from these gates weren’t particularly strong, but the unpredictability of their appearances left people living in constant fear. Indeed. No one could predict when and where these gates would appear. Not just in the big city, these gates could create a ‘hole’ near manholes or countless subway entrances spread all over Japan. It seemed these gates were connected to a dungeon. And so, Ryuuto ran toward the nearest subway exit with all of his might.

“Nnghah!”

But just before he reached the stairway leading underground, he was hurled back by an invisible barrier. He had expected this reaction though. For some unknown reasons, the gate only worked as a one-way path. Monsters could come out, but humans could never enter through the gate. The Goblin Lord and the smaller goblins cackled at Ryuuto’s failed attempt.

“I knew it! I already knew it, dammit!”

This barrier couldn’t be broken. That was an undeniable fact, but Ryuuto refused to give up.

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