The sheer amount of time needed to train the goblins into a disciplined military force was enough to rule Lady Aeliana out of being the Fallen Witch.
Furthermore, Vaan had not heard about an Abomination recovering their intelligence after turning. Not a single one.
‘Lady Aeliana isn’t the Fallen Witch, but she is very likely to be somewhere inside that rock mountain lair. The Fallen Witch is using her antimagic spores to collect mana for her research…’
Vaan quickly understood the situation.
Shortly after, he moved toward the goblin city for a closer look.
After spending some time investigating the perimeters of the goblin city quietly, he found less than forty enhanced goblins on patrol.
The number was far too small for a city that could accommodate several ten thousand goblins. Even the field cages had slightly more goblin patrols.
Nevertheless, while they guarded the vicinity of the rock mountain lair, it wouldn’t be easy for him to sneak past them.
Thus, he needed to create some diversion to draw them away.
Furthermore, his time was limited. It was just a matter of time before the other hundreds of goblins would return from the headless goblin champion’s location.
…
Suddenly, he heard distant movements from the southern direction. It came from a group of wolf-men from the Assembly of Silent Night.
They did very well in making their presence known as they did not hold back in expressing their surprise after they entered the second stratum and discovered the pocket realm.
“This is incredible…! I can’t believe there was a whole nother world lying just beyond the goblin caves! I almost thought we stepped into Gehenna!” a Peak B-rank hunter exclaimed.
“That’s not what we should worry about right now, Black Fang!” Silver Hawk reprimanded before he mentioned, “Don’t you realize we are in deep shit?”
When the wolf-men arrived, they attracted a horde of goblins.
However, the horde of goblins wasn’t the same as the ones they were given the reins to command on the surface.
The horde of goblins were all enhanced through body transmutation and showed characteristics of other monsters on their bodies.
At the same time, they weren’t as obedient. Instead, they looked like they could attack the wolf-men group at any time if the Fallen Witch granted permission.
“These goblins have all undergone body transmutation… The Cave Master is a Fallen Witch!” Dark Blade mentioned with shock before he agreed, “We are in deep trouble indeed!”
They would have preferred dealing with an intelligent Goblin King over a Fallen Witch.
“There was no telling what Fallen Witches are thinking or what they would do. They could smile at us one moment and stab us in the back the next moment,” Dark Blade added in a much softer tone.
“Remember what happened with Blood Knife. Don’t talk shit about the Cave Master, or else we will be in deep shit for sure!” Silver Hawk solemnly warned the group.
“Right now, the Cave Master is our only chance of surviving. I believe most of us can agree that we would rather live than die. If I have to join hands with a demon to survive, I would gladly do so.”
As the Silver Hawk spoke, he made his way toward the goblin city as instructed by the Fallen Witch.
“Sssi… Remember, this is your last chance to prove yourself useful. There won’t be another,” the Fallen Witch’s ghastly voice echoed through the region.
Silver Hawk and the others quickly trembled with fear as if the Fallen Witch had seen through all their thoughts.
There was just something about her voice that invoked fear in them.
…
Meanwhile, Vaan also overheard the ghastly voice from his location.
‘Was that the Fallen Witch’s voice?’ Vaan’s eyes narrowed as he failed to determine the direction of the source.
The voice had seemingly echoed from every direction.
‘Noise distortion, echo amplification, and… a sound mimicry spell?’ Vaan guessed the spells used to make the Fallen Witch’s location unknown.
Using all three magic spells simultaneously would produce an omnidirectional sound to that effect and mask the caster’s original position.
However, the Fallen Witch spoke to the wolf-men group as if she knew their location and situation from the start.
In other words, the Fallen Witch was in a position where she could monitor the wolf-men.
Vaan suspected that the Fallen Witch had long detected him. But at the same time, the lack of response also suggested otherwise.
After some contemplation, he figured the Fallen Witch had known about his disturbances.
However, the Fallen Witch didn’t consider the disturbances to be of great importance to invest too much in their investigation—not while her mind was preoccupied with the punitive expedition.
‘It seems like the Fallen Witch still doesn’t know about me after all. She never imagined someone to have infiltrated her territory through a different entrance,’ Vaan rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
But it was just a matter of time before the goblins reported the goblin champion’s death to her.
At that point, the Fallen Witch would be alerted of an intruder.
‘That means… the Fallen Witch is in a position where she can see the wolf-men, but she can’t see the goblin champion’s area?’
Vaan’s eyes scanned the surroundings.
The rock mountain lair was big but not big enough to provide a good vantage of the southern region. At the same time, it also implied the Fallen Witch was not in her lair.
‘Where could she be, I wonder?’
Although Vaan used Magic Vision to observe the surrounding regions, the large amount of mana moving towards the rock mountain lair could easily make him overlook some things.
Nevertheless, he focused on places that provided good vantage before his gaze suddenly locked onto one of the enormous supporting pillars that held up the pocket realm’s ceiling.
He had noticed the movements of mana being a bit different from the rest in the area.
‘I see. The Fallen Witch is hidden in that pillar. Is that her magic tower? And if it’s that pillar, then the western pillar would have obstructed her view of the goblin champion’s location!’
Vaan’s eyes flickered.
There was a fair bit of luck on his end, but he was able to confirm that the Fallen Witch still didn’t know about his infiltration.
‘Shall I make things interesting?’ Vaan smiled thoughtfully.