"I'm not one to back out so easily."
As Dodak and Kim Harin sat down on a nearby bed, she went into detail of the current situation in the medical faculty.
The goblins in the region were much more aggressive than those of the library region, and apparently they had ventured out to the campus square, as Dodak had encountered in the previous battle. They actively hunted humans, using devious traps and ploys to capture and devour them. They were also physically bigger and more skillful fighters, making them formidable hunters and enemies.
While these conditions could possibly have fostered teamwork within the humans of the region, it in turn caused the faculty to devolve into a hierarchy, where the most influential people had become the leaders that commanded the group. They were savages, fearmongering the group and killing anyone that did not align with their morals. However, that was not the worst part. The lack of food had caused the survivors to resort to other sources of food, no matter how unethical they were.
"Turns out, it's not only the goblins that have a liking for human meat."
Dodak was shocked. While the two regions were not very far apart, the difference in environment was drastic. The library was much more tame compared to the medical faculty.
"There has to be a reason for the difference in behaviour and appearance."
"Assuming these things are still animals, they should follow the rules of natural selection. Perhaps the climate here is slightly different, or the threats here are far more dangerous to the areas you've been to previously."
Dodak took a while to register the entire situation. Which was the lesser of the two evils? Aggressive goblins that were much tougher than the ones they fought before, or cannibals that would eat him? He wished he was lucky enough to not encounter either.
Then, a sudden thought raced into his mind that made him put his guard up.
"If this place really is as dangerous as you claim, why are you still here?"
She remained silent and stared at Dodak, her eyes calm yet fierce, her lips twisted into a small smirk.
"You're not afraid that I'll eat you, right?"
Avoiding the question, a typical red flag.
She began twirling her curly hair as she gazed mysteriously at Dodak. Danger signs were ringing in his head.
He slowly reached for a dagger in his pocket, his hand slowly gripping onto the handle tightly. Untugging it slowly from his pocket, he aimed and prepared himself to fight.
Before he could react, she burst out into a maniacal laughter and waved her hand, clutching her stomach as she giggled.
"Research is my passion. And where better to get fresh material for my research than the heart of the problem?"
"What exactly are you researching?"
"Everything related to this apocalypse. I wanted to start with the portal that brought all the creatures here, but I realised I was too ambitious. I needed to start smaller, so I started with the goblins. I'm studying their organic composition, their behavioural habits and their thought processes."
As Kim Harin continued her rant about her research, she occasionally giggled maniacly and twirled her hair, curling it further. Dodak started to suspect her hair might not have been naturally curly by the amount of force she used to twirl it.
"I've made quite some progress on researching their body composition. I could show you more if you're interested. However, studying their behavioural habits is hard. I can only observe them from far away since I don't have anything to capture them with. Live specimens are quite rare."
She finished her last statement with a smirk at Dodak and he felt a small tingle run down his spine.
"If you really want to return the favour, you could help me capture some goblins for my research. Perhaps also be my assistant for a while. I assume you have other places to be since you only just recently entered this area, so I won't ask for much of your time."
Dodak fell deep in thought. He could definitely just take the injured man and leave, but that would be unhonorable, considering the fact that he just promised he would help Kim Harin. After all, she did help save his friend's life. However, merely defeating the goblins was no easy task. Capturing them would be a different difficulty altogether.
"If you're not comfortable with it, it's fine. Only a madman would have agreed to it in the first place."
"I'll do it. I'm not one to forget favours. Besides, this could be good training. My skills do need some honing."
She stared at him with an expression that Dodak could not decipher. It looked like one of awe, pity and happiness, all blended together into those crazy, jet black eyes. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she gave a reaction. She squealed and clapped, jumping around in joy. Dodak was flabbergasted. The sight of a female head in a goblin body jumping for joy was not on his bucket list. Besides, she never struck him as the type to have a girly, feminine side.
"You have no idea how much I really wanted a live specimen! Thank you, really. I hope you succeed without losing any of your limbs!"
She bent down to pick up her goblin headpiece and began to skip off in delight when she halted and turned back.
"I almost forgot. We should probably move your friend to my hideout, afterwards you can start hunting!"
Guess his quest to destroy the barrier would have to wait.
"What have I gotten myself into…"
~~~
"Welcome to my abode."
After making god knows how many twists and turns and going down flights of stairs into the basement, they had arrived at Kim Harin's hideout. Dodak helped the man down onto a stretcher, which she had crafted into a temporary bed.
Once he had ensured he was comfortable, or as comfortable as he could be on a stretcher, he wandered around to explore the place. It was rather spacious for a basement, with a large amount of ceiling height and adequate room space. In a corner, piles of food and water crates were stacked haphazardly. They looked like they were about to drop any minute now. In a separate corner, there was a mattress that she had likely taken from the wards. At the back of the room was a door that was locked.
She beckoned for him to follow her as she unlocked it with a key and went in. Behind the door was what he had expected from her, but the fact that she had made it from scratch was truly extraordinary.
She had a large table in the centre with all sorts of knives and scalpels. She had jars of body parts on the table and on the floor, and she had all sorts of chemicals and drugs stashed away in another corner. On the centre table laid a goblin who was in the process of being dissected, like the grand dish of a feast. Its black blood seeped onto and stained the mahogany table, but Kim Harin gave little notice to it. Dodak noticed a few scalpels sticking out from the goblin's intestines, indicating that she was probably in the middle of her work before she was interrupted.
On the left of the door was an enclosed room with a window and a door, similar to those in a psychiatric hospital. It looked like a torture room but Dodak decided to abolish that thought. Inside was a bunch of dead goblin bodies, some already cut open while others still intact. A heavy, metal chain was connected to the wall with four cuffs, likely for the limbs of the subject. This place was definitely a torture dungeon.
"Its not the prettiest place, but it's definitely my favourite place to be. Free from distractions, and I only need to leave when I need fresh bodies."
She walked towards the dissected goblin in the middle, staring at her work in awe. She let out a puff of pride as Dodak examined the dissection.
"As you can see, its inner workings are similar to that of a human. It has all the basic organs that are required for survival on land, like the lungs and heart. Not that you don't need a heart for survival in the water, but you get what I mean. Their anatomy is scarily similar to ours. It's like, they're us from a different reality, but instead we're green and have black blood."
She continued her explanation as she picked up a syringe and pierced it into the heart of the body.
"I'm still studying why the blood is black, but it's fascinating. You probably don't know, but no living thing on Earth has black blood. Some have dark coloured blood, and with the correct lighting and angle, you could definitely photograph it as black. But this right here, is real, jet-black blood. It's unlike anything we know. This could be a breakthrough in science. An alternative to haemoglobin or hemocyanin."
Dodak had no idea what she was talking about. He was never good at biological science, only computer science. All those words meant nothing to him.
She seemed to have realised his confusion, for she sighed and her enthusiasm disappeared.
"Never mind. Just get me the live goblin. How do you even understand code better than biology? It's easier to understand something natural than unnatural."
"How do you know I do coding?"
When she realised that Dodak was interrogating her again, she rolled her eyes.
"Stop being suspicious of me. Of course I know the top scorer in the computer science cohort. I thought you were gonna be more of a geek though. What do you think, I live under a rock?"
Dodak was shocked. He did not think anyone would recognise him. He had always kept to himself on campus. His only friend here was Jisung. The man was an… outside friend.
"Speaking of, who even is this man?"
"He's… a friend."
"I meant his name, dummy. And why would you cry so much over a friend? You aren't roommates, are you?"
Dodak was speechless by her straightforwardness. He had never met anyone that cared so little about being mindful of their boundaries, especially with strangers.
"No, I don't live in the dorms. Besides, why can't I be sad that my friend is dying? I'm not heartless."
"Personally, if my friend was dying and got saved, I wouldn't be crying into his shoulder while he patted my head. Might just be me though. And you know I didn't mean to ask if you lived in the dorms. But whatever. What's his name, so I know how to talk to him in case he wakes up and discovers he's in a basement with scalpels and dead goblins?"
Dodak had only just realised the weird predicament he was in. The man might wake up and think that he was being kidnapped or experimented on, which could lead to him attacking Kim Harin. He did not think that far ahead and was genuinely impressed by her wits.
"I actually… I don't know his name. Just say I'm outside right now and I'll be back."
To save himself from further questioning, he quickly grabbed his daggers and went out the door. He skipped every other step, hoping to get out of that basement as fast as he could.
"What a weird bunch…"
Kim Harin could only mutter under her breath as she watched him run away. She rolled her eyes and cracked her neck before going back to her work. Picking her scalpel back up, she deviously licked her lips before slicing into the green, wrinkled skin.