Naruto didn't respond immediately, his eyes slightly closed, as memories from countless Shadow Clones surfaced in his mind.
The dozens, even hundreds, of Shadow Clones that had dispersed earlier spread out like a black net, continuously covering the entire magnificent ancient ruin fortress.
He used the Shadow Clones as a brush to draw a map of the ancient ruin fortress.
In just a moment.
Naruto opened his eyes again, his azure irises as clear and vast as the sky, yet as cold and bone-chilling as a glacier.
"Alright, let's go now. I'll take you to kill Goblins."
Naruto "revealed" his Goblin Slayer title and led the three women towards the Goblin stronghold hidden within the fortress.
The ancient ruin fortress remained intricate and complex, with numerous branching passages.
But Naruto seemed to know the correct path, making choices without hesitation whenever he encountered a fork in the road.
Before long.
Naruto and his group arrived at the core area of the ancient ruin fortress—the Giant Cylindrical Tower.
As soon as they left the end of the passage, a foul stench, a mix of blood, putrid fluid, and decaying corpses, assailed them.
The intensely pungent odor made the three women, experienced adventurers as they were, spontaneously gag.
Sword Saintess and Elf Archer both leaned against the wall, one hand covering their mouths, feeling their stomachs churn, almost throwing up the bread they had eaten earlier.
The Sorceress reacted slightly better, but her brows were also tightly furrowed.
"The main camp is at the bottom central plaza of the Giant Cylindrical Tower," Naruto whispered.
The four were currently on the fourth floor of the Giant Cylindrical Tower. After the Elf Archer managed to adapt to the pervasive stench in the air, she crouched down and moved to the edge of the dilapidated, crumbling wall, her back pressed against a cracked stone pillar. She slowly stood up, then quickly peeked down.
Just that one glance.
The Elf Archer's face paled. She quickly pulled her head back, pressing tightly against the stone pillar, her hands covering her mouth, the pupils of her emerald eyes trembling violently.
She saw the bottom plaza of the Giant Cylindrical Tower, scattered with large and small rubble and Mukuro, a rather spacious area, crowded with Goblins of all sizes.
They seemed to be celebrating wildly.
Bonfires burned, their flames distorting the Goblins' faces. A dozen or so naked, scarred female corpses, having lost their reproductive value, were being cut up and shared at today's feast.
A Goblin that didn't look very big, half a head shorter than a regular Goblin, seemingly just "matured," was, under the guidance of other Goblins, gripping a broken short sword with both hands and fiercely stabbing into the slender arm of an Elf woman.
"Ahhh…"
She didn't seem to be completely dead yet.
Only her last breath remained.
The excruciating pain of her arm being pierced by the short blade made her instinctively let out another shrill scream.
Yet, her screams did not evoke any pity from these "green-skinned brats"; instead, they ignited their endless malice.
It was unknown whether this Elf woman was the mother of this particular Goblin.
A scream made it excitedly dance with joy.
The Goblins nearby incessantly "goo-gee-goo-lah-ed," egging on the "little Goblin" to complete its "coming-of-age ceremony."
The little Goblin brutally pulled out the broken short sword, and warm blood splattered with a "schk" sound, spraying onto its face.
"Goo-gee!"
The little Goblin's murky yellow eyes narrowed, in a state of extreme excitement. It gripped the broken short sword with both hands, raised it high, aimed at the Elf woman's neck, and thrust it down fiercely.
"Whoosh—"
An arrow shot through the air, from top to bottom, piercing the back of the little Goblin's neck and sticking into the ground at an angle.
The little Goblin immediately fell to the ground.
And this Elf woman, who was preparing to meet her death, turned her head to see the arrow very close to her, and a faint glimmer of hope seemed to gradually ignite in her faded eyes.
That was… an Elf arrow of the Uemori clan!
The death of the little Goblin immediately attracted the attention of the other Goblins.
The bottom plaza of the Giant Cylindrical Tower had at least a hundred Goblins gathered. They looked around, searching for the archer's whereabouts, loudly "goo-gee-ing" curses.
After shooting an arrow, the Elf Archer immediately crouched down, hid herself, moved next to Naruto, and apologized: "I'm sorry, I acted on my own and alarmed them."
"Alarmed?"
"They're just a bunch of disgusting little brats, not worthy of the word 'alarmed'."
Naruto smiled disdainfully, then flipped his hand and took out a huge, full backpack, almost half a person's height, from his item bar.
This backpack came from a certain black-hearted equipment merchant who wished to remain anonymous.
There weren't many truly good items; most were of [White] to [Green] quality, and there were even [Gray] counterfeit products. Even the expensive potions were watered down.
Its only value might have been a few dozen silver coins and several hundred copper coins.
After Naruto's Shadow Clone dealt with the black-hearted equipment merchant's corpse, he didn't throw the backpack away. He brought it back, and his main body casually put it in the system space to collect dust, never expecting it to come in handy one day.
Naruto rummaged through it and pulled out dozens of arrows.
"Arrows forged by human blacksmiths may not be as good as Elf arrows, but they should be enough to kill Goblins."
Naruto glanced at the quiver on the Elf Archer's back.
The quiver was quite full, but it definitely wouldn't be enough to kill all the Goblins in the plaza.
The Elf Archer's mind trembled slightly, and she nodded silently.
"You all go ahead and kill; I'll hold the fort."
Naruto smiled calmly, his voice, not yet fully devoid of childishness, carried an indescribable domineering aura.
"Here, sunglasses, put them on."
The Sword Saintess handed the Elf Archer a pair of sunglasses.
She and the Sorceress were already wearing sunglasses.
The Elf Archer didn't understand why, but she still obediently complied.
Immediately after.
The Elf Archer understood the purpose of wearing sunglasses.
"O Judge of Judgment, Lord of the Sword, Person of the Balance, please have mercy on the lost—in the name of the supreme god, dispel the darkness of this domain!"
After chanting, the Sword Saintess waved the balance sword staff in her hand. The holy light sphere, originally hidden in the passage behind her, immediately floated out, flew above the bottom plaza of the Giant Cylindrical Tower, and suddenly expanded, like an explosion, bursting forth with incredibly dazzling pure white light.
All the Goblins' vision was submerged in the white sea of light, causing temporary blindness.
At this moment, the Elf Archer immediately coordinated, swiftly moving along the corridor of the Giant Cylindrical Tower while continuously drawing her bow and shooting arrows, killing one blinded Goblin after another.
"Pfft," "Pfft," "Pfft"
Splashes of blood flew.
In the vast, still-dissipating light, one Goblin after another was pierced by arrows and fell to the ground.
One hit kill!
However, the Elf Archer grew increasingly anxious.
The blinding effect of the holy light was clearly fading, and even if she used continuous arrows at her fastest speed, she couldn't kill all the Goblins.
"This is bad. Once the Goblins recover their vision from the blindness, we will definitely face their most vicious counterattack."
Just as the Elf Archer was feeling anxious, a gentle, soft female voice, carrying a three-part lazy charm, came from not far away:
"With moon as yarn, Cloud Mukuro as quilt, stardust slumber, sleep in homeland, Sleep Cloud!"