Using their various tracking [Skills], Fran and Archer figured out where that first band of goblins had come from and it wasn't long before they stumbled upon a second group, one that was… slightly larger.
One hundred and thirty goblins in total, including twenty high goblins and four hobgoblins. While taking them by surprise had allowed Fran to kill six of them before they started, that still left well over a hundred goblins to deal with.
Even so, Archer held back, allowing Fran to do most of the fighting, only providing assistance by healing her wounds and using his telekinesis to deflect attacks that would have caused serious injuries, as well as giving her instruction on how to close the gaps in her defenses. The goblins were better coordinated than before, they had far more ranged units and a mage capable of using both support magic and necromancy.
Even so, the fight quickly devolved into a one sided slaughter. Fran's sword skills simply being too much for them to handle. In deed, her Divine Sword Arts seemed to surpass the kind of skill displayed by most mortals, not to the degree of being at the Servant level, but still inhuman all the same, and her magic was nothing to scoff at either. In just ten minutes, Fran had killed them all, suffering only a handful of small injures.
Fran had already grown six more levels and they hadn't even reached the goblin's nest yet. In Archer's limited Experience, the goblin nest usually housed the higher level individuals.
(Fran has grown to level 12 | New titles unlocked; One Man Army, Goblin Slayer, One Who Slaughters)
Archer glanced over the girl's stats and new titles. Her abilities were steadily increasing. If this kept up, Fran was approaching what in Archer's previous world would have been considered the human limit in both speed and strength. Archer didn't have much of a scope what what that means in terms of this world, as he had never seen any humans save for the slaves and slavers, and those super rookie adventurers from before, but he felt like it had to be impressive. In deed, a twelve year old girl who can already lift four hundred pounds is something to be boggled at. It still wasn't comparable to Servants, but it was insane for a mortal without magical enhancements.
As for titles, they were a mixed batch. Goblin Slayer was simple enough, you kill a hundred or more goblins to get it and it gives you increased damage to goblins. Kind of useless, since goblin's die in just one well placed blow anyways.
One Who Slaughters was only slight better, as it gave Fran +10 AGI. It is supposed to be a title award to those who kill a hundred enemies in a single battlefield and provides the person with the [Mental Stability] Skill, decreasing their aversion to bloodshed, but… Fran really didn't have that.
In deed, Archer was a little surprised that the girl could be surrounded by so much blood, being completely covered in it by the end of her battle, without going through the normal reactions. The small of so much blood would usually cause the body to start to gag, in order to protect itself from blood borne diseases. However, Fran seemed just fine with it. If anything, she was practically giddy with excitement, as if going into a blood frenzy. Perhaps Beastkin don't have the same gag reflex as humans do. Or maybe Fran was just a natural born battle junky.
However, the final title 'One Man Army' was much more valuable, granting +20 to HP, STR and END and giving her the [Indomitable Resolve] skill, which prevented her from feeling fear in the face of adversity and increased her stamina and recovery speed. It was a big one.
"One Man Army: rare!" Fran said a little louder than her normal monotone voice, her eyes even widened to show her excitement as she gathered Magic Stones from the dead before tossing the body into their [Dimensional Storage].
[I can imagine it would be.] Archer said as he looked over the requirements. In order to gain the title, one had to fight one hundred enemies of equal or higher level to themselves all alone and survive. It was only because of her training, her unusually strong [Skills] and the buffs she got from having Archer equipped that allowed Fran to overcome such odds with only a few small injuries.
"Hero's title!" Fran explained.
Hero's title… Interesting. So there were especially difficult titles that are associated with heroes. Perhaps even giving superior bonuses for getting them. It might be handy to try to find out the requirements for such titles and aim to achieve them.
Well, for now, Archer was just glad that Fran seemed to be happy.
"Search for more." Fran suggested as they finished retrieving the stones.
[Yes. We still need to find the goblin's nest.] Archer agreed.
"Nn!" Fran said, nodding her head sharply.
[I don't like the look of this.] Archer said after they had found a large cave entrance with blood red marks on the stones surrounding it. Archer recognized the marks as being the same kind he had seen before when dealing with goblins, so this was definitely their nest. However, Archer's previous experiences could not explain the overwhelming magical presence that echoed through the walls of the cavern. [If this is just a goblin's nest, then what is with all this magical energy?]
"Archer: worry wort." Fran said, clearly .
[Don't get ahead of yourself. This nest isn't normal so we should take things slowly.] Archer cautioned her. While her outward demeanor hadn't changed at all, she was far too excited about fighting, to the point where Archer was feeling concerned about her.
Did leveling have some kind of euphoria effect that was clouding her judgment?
"Haven't killed Goblin King yet." Fran said, trying to justify pushing forward.
[...True. So long as the Goblin King is alive, they will keep breeding hobgoblins.] Archer agreed. Hobgoblins still won't much of a threat to Fran and Archer, but they did have stats that were around three times higher than a normal goblin's. [In large enough numbers, they could cause some serious problems in the surrounding area. Especially if they are just left to keep multiplying. How fast do goblin's breed anyways?]
"10 days to become full grown." Fran replied.
[...They really are like roaches.] Archer said with a sigh. [Alright, we will press forward, but proceed with caution. I don't want us to become surrounded or trapped down there.]
"Nn." Fran said, not needing any more encouragement as she pushed forward into the nest.
Not satisfied with Fran's assurance that she would be careful, Archer decided to spend 14 more of his self-evolution points, bumping [Presence Concealment] up from Lv1 to Lv5 and increasing [Presence Detection] from Lv2 to Lv5, instructing Fran to keep [Presence Concealment] on while they were out of combat.
It didn't make much of a difference. While Fran used her [Presence Concealment] to ambush enemies, she was still attacking every enemy group they spotted.
While it was their objective to kill as many of the hobgoblins as possible, Archer was concerned about the lack of caution she was displaying. Her argument that they would be safer the less enemies were around was correct, but that didn't make her actions right. Still, despite Archer's paranoia, they continued deeper and deeper into the caves, killing hobgoblins as they went.
And it was only hobgoblins. After entering the goblin nest, they no longer saw any normal goblins or high goblins. Instead there were dozens upon dozens of hobgoblins.
With her ability to ambush them, and the [Goblin Slayer] title causing the goblin's to fear the girl and hesitate whenever they saw her, Fran went from group to group, killing most of them before they even had a chance to properly react. With each group she killed, she gathered their magic stones before tossing the bodies into her Dimensional Storage and cleaning away any sign of battle before disappearing once again into the shadows and moving on.
The cave system was massive, and in this manner, Fran went from section to section, killing hobgoblin until she finally found what she was looking for, the Goblin King.
(No throne room?) Fran thought to Archer though their telepathic link, seeming disappointed as she came to a section of the cave and found a cluster of nearly a hundred hobgoblins waiting for her, their king and queen in the center of it all.
Fran was right, the area wasn't even more spacious than any of the others, causing the Demonic Beasts to all be cramped together in a small area, there wasn't really anything special about the room as far as Archer could see. Still, there were quite a few hobgoblins there.
...Not that it mattered.
Before entering the room, Fran used [Split Thought] in order to allow her to cast two spells at once, launching to large AOE fire attacks into the inclosed space.
The two [Flame Magic] spells engulfed almost the entire room in fire, bringing out short screams of panic from the occupants inside. As the surprise attack ended, Fran rushed inside to confront the Goblin King and Queen… only to find they were already dead from the previous volley. "Disappointing."
[What were you expecting? Even if it was the Goblin King, it was still just a goblin.] Archer commented, though he was still focusing on the walls. Even though they had killed nearly four hundred Hobgoblins thus far, the magic in the walls hadn't changed. No. That wasn't the case. After this room he was sure of it. [This place is absorbing energy from the fallen. No, not just the fallen. Everyone inside of it. It isn't much energy, but it is still there.]
The entire place reminded Archer of the Arenas from the Moon Cell's Holy Grail War.
"Mysterious." Fran commented as she moved forward, still a little disappointed about the ease in which she dispatched the Goblin King, but wanting to absorb the Magic Stones anyways.
Self-Evolving:
(Rank 7 | Memory 60 | Points 57) → (Rank 8 | Magic Stone Value 2801/3600 |Memory 68 | Points 97)
ATK: 342 → 404 MP: 1550 → 2050 Durability: 1450 → 1850 Mana Channel: A
Fran had absorbed enough Magic Stones for Archer to once again rank up. A welcome sight, since it came with a boost to his mana pool. The increase in attack wasn't all that important at the moment. Considering his reinforcement magecraft could safely increase the attack by 2000 whenever he needed it, an increase of 62 wasn't that much.
The extra Self-evolution Points were also nice, though Archer didn't currently have a good target for using them on. He didn't know enough about Skill to want to spend a limited resource on any of them. Perhaps raising one of the skills would lead to interesting results, but he didn't know. He also didn't know if a skill he spent his Points getting would turn out to be a common skill which would have been leveled up from just repeated absorption if he had been patient.
Archer had always been something of a frugal man, even in life, and these mystical Self-evolution Points invoked an almost too-valuable-to-use syndrome in him. Kind of like with the Old Rin and her jewels.
"Door." Fran said suddenly, pointing towards one of the passages out of the room..
[What?] Archer said looking in the direction she was pointing.
Sure enough, there was a door… A giant stone door, in the middle of a cave. Though the door, in the almost pitch darkness of the cave torches, the two of them could see tiled stone flooring.
[Well, that's not something you should find in a goblin's nest.] Archer said.
"Nn. Why wasn't king waiting in there? Better setting." Fran said as she drew closer to the door.
[I have no idea, but we don't know what any of this is about.] Archer said. [We should head back up to the surface. We've already dealt with the Goblin King, there shouldn't be any rush for us to press forward. We can go to town and try to research what is going on here.]
"Nn… I bet something bigger is in there." Fran said.
[You're probably right. We should check the door for any sort of clues before we leave.] Archer said. Fran nodded her head and started to walk closer to the doors. But rather than stopping there, she walked straight into the room. [What are you doing!?] Archer shouted, but it was too late.
The doors slammed behind them and the lights in the room flickered and then died. Then, after a moment of quiet, the whining sound of bug wings could be heard. Hundreds of them.
"More opponents." Fran said, lifting up Archer as she used her [Presence Detection] to find them even in the dark.
[Fran...] Archer said with a tired sigh.
Why was she being so reckless?
Army Beetle Leader Lv.5
Race: Calamity Insect (Demonic Beast)
HP: 8, MP: 20, STR: 4, END: 3
AGI: 22, INT: 5, MGC: 12, DEX: 12
Skills:
Wind Magic Lv1, Summon Kin Lv5, Leadership Lv1, Cooperation Lv1
Inherent Skills:
Acid Fang
Army Beetle Lv.2
Race: Calamity Insect (Demonic Beast)
HP: 6, MP: 10, STR: 3, END: 3
AGI: 20, INT: 2, MGC: 4, DEX: 10
Skills: Hardening Lv1
Inherent Skills:
Acid Fang
Army Beetle Medic Lv.4
Race: Calamity Insect
HP: 10, MP: 15, STR: 1, END: 7
AGI: 20, INT: 4, MGC: 8, DEX: 10
Skills:
Recovery Magic Lv.2
Inherent Skills:
Acid Fang
Army Beetle Medic Lv.4
Race: Calamity Insect
HP: 3, MP: 18, STR: 2, END: 2
AGI: 20, INT: 3, MGC: 10, DEX: 10
Skills:
Wind Magic Lv.3
Inherent Skills:
Acid Fang
It was a trap room, and an incredibly dangerous trap room at that. They locked the intruders inside and then had them swarmed by hundreds of insects. Each of the Army Beetles alone was no stronger than a goblin, giving the intruder a false sense of safety, believing that they could defeat all of the beetles before too long, only for more and more to be called on by the Army Beetle Leader's [Summon Kin] skill.
Slowly, bit by bit, the bugs whittle away at the fighter's endurance until they can no longer fight back as for every enemy they kill, two more take its place.
...Well, that is the theory behind the room, anyways. They likely didn't take into account the possibility of people like Fran and Archer being there.
With Archer's mana pool, which was currently 4 times the size of a genuine magus's, his ability to drain mana from his enemies Magic Stones, their bodies, and the air around them, and Fran's inhuman endurance… it would be a few hours before there was any sign of tiring.
In fact, Fran was purposely leaving the Beetle Leaders alive to summon more of their brethren, rather than even trying to end the fight.
Archer just let her. He started to think that since when he ranked up, his mana receives were restored, Fran might also be getting a sort of recharge because of her level ups. Perhaps all her leveling had just caused her to have a sudden surplus of energy and she just needed to get it out of her system.
He first had this theory about an hour ago… and she had gotten the 'Insect Slayer' title for killing more than 300 insect-type Demonic Beasts after the first twenty minutes or so, and as the Army Beetle Leaders were summoning more Army Beetle Leaders, the process was only accelerating. Archer could only get a rough estimate of just how many she had killed by keeping an eye on his "Magic Stone Points", as each beetle was worth a single point. He had gained an additional 800 Magic Stone Points thus far, and she had only absorbed about two thirds of the stones from the ones she killed. So she was at around 1200 kills already.
Fran had already absorbed enough of the stones in that room alone to grow Archer yet another Self-Evolution rank, and she was still going. Fran claimed at first that she wanted to keep absorbing the stones so that she could increase Archer's [Wind Magic] level, hoping that it would help her improve her own [Wind Magic] and by extension her [Lightning Magic]. However, Archer had already managed to increase [Recovery Magic], [Wind Magic] and [Summon Kin] to their max level, just by repeatedly absorbing the stones from the beetles. It had even allowed Archer to unlock [Lightning Magic] himself as well as [Healing Magic], the upgrade of [Recovery Magic], and [Overcharge Summoning], the upgrade of [Summon Kin]. Though he doubted he would even use [Overcharge Summoning]. Summoning a living creature to assist you and increasing its power so that it can obtain superior performance but dies horribly after a short period of time… feels unethical.
While he was glad to have gotten such things, he still was far more concerned about Fran's strange behavior.
He gave up on the plan to simply exhaust Fran of her 'level up' based surplus of energy when after an hour of killing the bugs, she leveled up yet again, going from level 18 to level 19. In that single day she had grown 15 levels. He was starting to worry that this accelerated growth might even be unhealthy.
[I think you've had enough.] Archer told the girl after she had leveled up once again.
"But… bonus stage." Fran said.
[Fran, it is time for us to leave. Finish the rest of them off now.] Archer said forcefully. Fran paused and actually seemed sad about being told to stop. [We can return another day, but right now we need to retreat, recollect ourselves and come back with more information.]
"Nn." Fran said, nodding her agreement and starting to kill the monsters a little faster than before. Archer joined in, just to make sure she wouldn't be tempted to prolong the fight even more.
It didn't even take five minutes for them to clear the room of the remaining two hundred or so enemies in the room.
However, when the last of the beetles was killed and the lights came back on, rather than the door going back opening up, the door on the opposite side of the room opened, inviting them to go deeper, meanwhile, the door behind them remained shut tight.
Archer was thinking about how to get the door back to open when Fran spoke. "Strong."
So, she sensed it too. [Yes. It feels stronger than the C-rank Demonic Beasts I've seen before. It's at least at the B-rank level.] Not only was it considerably stronger than what Archer had faced in the forest before meeting Fran, it was likely intelligent and there was the real possibility that it was hiding some of its strength. [We should turn back now and...] Fran ignored him and started for the open door. [Fran, what are you doing!?] Archer shouted at the girl yet again, using his telekinesis to pull her back. [It isn't a battle you are ready for.]
"Archer is with me. We can win." Fran said, trying her best to go for the door.
[It's a pointless risk.]
"Not pointless!" Fran said forcefully, then, to Archer's surprise, she used [Herculean Strength], [Support Magic], and [Wind Magic] to help push them forward, towards the open door, before Archer could gather the power to stop them.
The door slammed shut behind them, a strong magical presence echoing through it in order to keep it closed.
Then, the lights in the room flared bright, and a large humanoid demonic beast with huge demon horns, bat like wings and a spear-like tail floated before them on the far side of the stone brick room. The creature grinned as he saw them, rolling his huge muscular arms in the fashion of an athlete stretching before a big event.
The beast grinned, showing several sharpened teeth before he spoke. "Yo, yo! Our first guest! Welcome! You sure took your time with that previous room. I was starting to wonder if you weren't coming at all."
[...Master. We will have words.] Archer said forcefully. However, this was not the time, now was the time for battle, and against the strongest opponent thus far.
Demon Lv.30
Race: Fiend (Demonic Beast)
HP: 1900, MP: 2409, STR: 720, END: 798
AGI: 775, INT: 882, MGC: 1108, DEX: 658
Skills:
Digging Lv3, Darkness Magic Lv4, Coercion Lv4, Transportation Lv2, Sword Techniques Lv5, Sword Arts Lv5, Abnormal Status Resistance Lv7, Earth Magic Lv7, Climbing Lv1, Poison Magic Lv7, Magic Barrier Lv6, Dark Magic LvMax, Cooking Lv1, Darkness Reinforcement, Darkness Immunity, Night Vision, Automatic MP Recovery, Control Immunity, Skin hardening, MGC ↑ Low, Strength ↑ Low
Unique Skills: Skill Taker Lv.6
Titles: Demon Count
Equipment: Demonic Shadow-Steel Longsword
Description: Only summoned by Dungeon Masters, this being is native to Dungeons. Followers of the God of Chaos, their combat prowess is exceedingly high, with their lowest Threat Level at C. The existence of individuals reaching level S has been confirmed. During the summons, for the sake of increasing the abilities of the dungeon master, it's abilities are extremely varied. Magic Stone Location: Heart
Self-Evolving:
(Rank 8 | Memory 68 | Points 97) → (Rank 9 | Magic Stone Value 3721/4500 |Memory 75 | Points 152)
ATK: 404 → 478 MP: 2050 → 2500 Durability: 1850 → 2300 Mana Channel: A
The reason Shishou(Master) didn't grow any ranks during the goblin dive was because he was holding back on absorbing stones in order to not make people suspicious about their disappearance.
Without that concern in mind, and with Fran having the entire dungeon to herself, Archer was just pushed forward in grow by comparison.