Shinggg!


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


    A Peak Rank 3 monster was in 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 ce,” 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 onlysted a few breaths before it disappeared.


    Shortly after, Vaan quickly left the area without hesitation.


    Although the loudmotion 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.


    …


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


    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 ce. It’ll be difficult to get close to the evil witch’sir,’ Vaan contemted.


    Hunting the monsters in small groups would take too much time while ying them inrge 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 arge 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 evilir, 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 rtivelyrge rock mountain in the distance, surrounded by a t field with countlessrge metal cages in ce.


    Each of therge 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 mountainir and t 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 amodate at least thirty thousand, and this was just a rough estimation from a nce.


    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 andir.


    ‘The security around their 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 spected.


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


    ‘But where is the nt-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 nt-type Abomination.


    Shortly after, he activated his Magic Vision and sawrge amounts of mana being drawn towards the rock mountainir.


    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.