Monster in the Goblin Tribe

"Gibberish, gibberish..."

While Carl and Hopp were carefully exploring the canyon, several emaciated figures were gathered around the corpse of a Giant Lizard in the goblin camp deep within the canyon.

They had no heads. Their four emaciated arms waved about wildly as they continuously stuffed torn-off Giant Lizard meat into the two mouths located in their chests.

In appearance, these monsters looked as though two ordinary goblins had been forcibly fused together.

But they clearly lacked sufficient intelligence.

"Yah! Kakafuga!"

Suddenly, one of the monsters raised its head and stopped eating.

It stumbled toward the tribe's weapon storehouse, then took the tunnel accidentally opened by the Rust Monster and arrived at the underground Ritual Site.

The Blackstone Greatsword was now surrounded by goblin corpses. At that moment, two of the goblin corpses were slowly fusing together beneath the black energy released by the Blackstone Greatsword.

The monster that had hurried over crawled on all fours to the greatsword. As a bloody energy was drawn out of its body, the goblin corpses finally completed their fusion.

The newly born monster imitated it and crawled on all fours, while the monster drained of its bloody energy weakly climbed to its feet and led the newborn monster away from the underground Ritual Site.

As their figures vanished from the Ritual Site, new black energy surged from the Blackstone Greatsword and selected two more goblin corpses.

After emerging from underground, the two monsters returned to the Giant Lizard's corpse and began another round of feeding.

The newborn monster still carried some of the Blackstone Greatsword's power, causing the Giant Lizards in the distant enclosure to grow restless.

But because they had been raised for so long, they had no intention of resisting.

After finishing their meal this time, the monsters did not head for the underground Ritual Site. Instead, they picked up the various weapons beside them and began wandering through the tribe, as though keeping watch for something.

No one knew how much time had passed before two furtive figures appeared outside the goblin tribe.

Looking at the monster wandering around the tribe's entrance, one of the figures asked her companion:

"Carl! What is that thing?"

The newcomers were none other than Carl and Hopp. After advancing cautiously for more than three hours, they had finally reached the goblin tribe deep within the canyon.

"Hmm~, hiss~. I'm not sure either. It looks a little like a Grotesque Aberration."

"A Grotesque Aberration? What's that?"

"They're said to be monsters created by ancient fiends who modified goblins. I've only seen them a few times in textbooks."

Watching the strange figures in the distance, Carl's brows gradually furrowed beneath her Power Armor.

Although fiends were not necessarily present near a Grotesque Aberration, these twisted monsters were inherently embodiments of evil.

In Eberron, phrases like "born evil..." were usually subjective judgments.

Because of the special design the World Dragons had given the entire universe, the vastness of the starry sky cut off the influence of the gods. It also meant that the vast majority of sapient life on the planet Eberron had no concept of an "innate alignment."

In the game Baldur's Gate 3, which Carl had once played, Red Dragons were representatives of chaotic evil.

But in Eberron, the alignment each dragon ultimately displayed was entirely determined by the worldview they developed after birth.

Lawful good Red Dragons and chaotic evil Gold Dragons both existed.

Even Mind Flayers, creatures from an otherworldly plane of the Mad Nation, had produced some lawful good individuals after breaking free from the Mad Nation's influence.

But as a species created by the supreme fiends of old, Grotesque Aberrations were among the few representatives of "innate evil."

These cruel creatures were hostile toward all other races and served as the fiends' loyal lackeys.

"What do we do now? Do we charge straight in?"

Hopp weighed the ax in her hand, looking eager to give it a try.

This was her first real battle since reaching level three.

"Wait. I'll draw it over."

As she spoke, Carl raised her left arm and took aim at the distant Grotesque Aberration.

As the pulleys and bowstring moved, a magic bolt tore through the air and struck the monster directly in the body.

"Thud."

The grotesque monster collapsed onto the ground and never got back up.

Carl: "..."

Hopp: "...Weren't you going to lure it over? How is this any different from me attacking directly?"

"Ahem, sorry. That was a miscalculation. In that case, let's just sneak in directly. Call me if anything happens!"

After coughing awkwardly twice, Carl stopped restricting Hopp's movements. The two split up and slipped into the goblin tribe.

However, just after Carl climbed over the wall, the scream of a Grotesque Aberration came from Hopp's direction.

The sound was incredibly loud. Carl felt she could have heard it even while standing at the canyon entrance.

"Sigh~. Why did I expect a Barbarian to quietly kill these monsters? When I played Assassin's Creed back then, didn't I charge straight through everything too?"

Carl patted the helmet of her Power Armor and stopped hiding her presence. Relying on the armor's powerful strength enhancement, she leaped more than two meters in a single bound and landed directly atop the tribe's watchtower.

"Biubiubiu..."

The magic bolts and the lightning launcher in her chest activated one after another. The flashes of electricity and azure magic bolts briefly created the impression of overwhelming firepower.

Several Grotesque Aberrations drawn over by their companion's dying scream fell beneath Carl's barrage of ranged attacks.

However, several others realized the danger and hid in the shadows, firing crossbow bolts at Carl.

"Clang!"

A battered crossbow bolt struck Carl's Power Armor. With its arrowhead rotten and the shot fired upward, the bolt was immediately deflected by the armor.

"Whoa! You guys can hit me from there? These creatures aren't as simple as they look! Don't tell me they have classes?"

Although Grotesque Aberrations generally had only eight points of Intelligence attribute, they truly could acquire classes.

Usually, they became Warriors, Rogues, and the like.

But the Gnarled Aberrations transformed from Hobgoblins were different. Some of them could even train as Monks.

Seeing that the enemy had actually counterattacked—and even hit her—Carl no longer dared to underestimate them. Instead, she relied on the walls of the barely two-meter-high watchtower and compressed her body into cover.

She had not forgotten what kind of defense this suit of Power Armor actually possessed.

To put it bluntly, it was merely a layer of iron sheet wrapped over an exoskeletal frame.

"If only I had a wand of Magic Missile. One spell from that and I could at least kill one of them."

An Artificer's main offensive power was concentrated in magic items, with wands being especially important.

While Eberron's civilization was still in its medieval period, wands usually had only seven or eight charges, and they had to wait for them to recharge after being depleted.

But after generations of Artificers optimized them, Eberron's wands could now hold up to fifty charges.

Artificers could also perform emergency recharging on wands.