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The party sneaked into the settlement.

They did their best not to make too much noise and not to get too close to any patrolling goblins as they did so that they wouldn’t get discovered right away.

This settlement was larger than they initially expected, but it was no big deal. To the party’s delight, though, they found one of the places where the obscuring formation was located.

Just breaking one would destabilize the whole formation and would allow Kaycee’s bloodline ability to be effective again.

However, Derek decided that destroying directly wasn’t the play here.

Destabilizing the obscuring formation would certainly alert the whole settlement. The Goblin Lord and Goblin Elites will instantly be attracted to their location, and the party will find themselves surrounded right away.

And while Derek was confident of the party’s strength to deal with any trouble that comes their way, there’s no need to take more difficult options when there are others available to them.

So, instead of directly blowing up the formation anchor, they decide to stage a delayed destruction. They would plant explosives around the location and move as far away as they could from the area.

They’d blow it up from a distance. That way, the explosion wouldn’t reveal their presence, and it will also serve as a distraction for the goblins while Kaycee uses her bloodline ability to discover everything within this settlement.

Actually, Derek wanted to go further. He told the team that he also wanted to chain all over the entire settlement, essentially blowing the whole place up to the skies.

It’s funny because it had to be Jen who had to tell him that this was a bad idea.

Ren never thought that Derek had a certain liking to explosions. Fortunately, he didn’t go nuts about it.

They followed the original plan. They planted the explosives near the formation anchor and moved far away from the area, practically fleeing to the opposite side of the settlement. The explosion was already timed, and the moment they arrived at the area they wanted to move into, the explosion already happened.

BOOM!!

The whole settlement was shaken awake by that explosion; the impact swept over the whole area, attracting the attention of all goblins.

It did its job. The obscuring formation was down, and Kaycee didn’t waste time at all. The moment the haze was gone, her eyes sparkled with silver, and the entire map of the dungeon was once again reflected in her eyes. This time, this goblin settlement was no longer hidden or hazy. It was whole and perfectly clear to her.

"The good news is that the Goblin Lord isn’t the shaman," she started with. "The bad news is that it’s the elites, both of them. And they stick close to the lord. All three of them essentially move as a unit; they’re at the explosion zone right now."

"Well, that’s tricky. But not impossible." Derek muttered. "Anything else to add?"

"I think we should raid their treasury first before handling the lord and the elites," Kaycee suggested as the silver sparkle in her eyes faded and her pupils turned dull.

"They’ve gathered a lot of resources. Lots of raw ores and gems, but mostly gold. There’s still a lot that hasn’t been turned into pyrite; we can still get it. The security of the treasury isn’t strong or strict. We might be able to sneak in, steal everything, and get out without alerting them. I bet they’d probably be occupied by the explosion site for a while, and the elites will definitely try to make another formation anchor."

"Where’s the treasury located?" Derek asked.

"In that building," Kaycee pointed out to the largest and tallest house in the settlement, the one that happened to be close to their current hiding spot.

"It’s hidden behind a mechanism. Keep going down until you reach the basement, look for the left torch handle, and pull it down gently; the wall it’s attached to should flip. Move along with it, and you’ll be in the treasury. You can leave the same way."

"Ren and I will do it," Derek declared right away, no hesitation in his voice whatsoever. "Jules, you stay here and guard the girls. We’ll proceed once we return. If the lord and the elites enter the same building, make a loud noise to alert us. Otherwise, wait for us to return, got it?"

The rest of the party nodded.

"Jen, I’ll leave them to you. Let’s go, Ren."

Just like that, Ren and Derek moved.

Derek turned into a blurry phantom of movement. He stuck to the shadows, moving in and out like a ghost. The silence of his movement was amplified by the inherent attribute of his chakra.

Meanwhile, Ren moved with pure speed and skill. He kept up easily with Derek’s pace and also did not attract any attention or made too much noise.

In just a minute, they’re in the building. The two of them moved close, communicating through gestures as they infiltrated the estate. Not long after they entered, they arrived in the basement.

Just like Kaycee said, the security was lax. At least half of the patrols were literally sleeping on the job. They explosion earlier might’ve woken them up but they just went back to sleep once discovering that everything seems to be fine.

There’s literally nobody guarding the basement doors at all, there were no traps either, physical or magical ones. The two of them just waltzed right in, flipped the switch and arrived before the treasury.

Derek took one glance at everything inside and decided that they’re taking everything.

If they sold all of this, they’d easily get more 3 million credits at once, divided evenly to all five of them. This was a fat paycheck if he had ever seen one, and there’s no way he could turn away from this profit.

He wouldn’t spare the pyrite. Yes it had been devalued by the goblins, but it could still be sold. The goblins won’t miss this since they’d be dead soon.

Ren was already hauling the loot in the team’s inventory before Derek ordered him to do so.

However, he did stop Derek for a bit and pointed at something. Then he whispered: "Traps."

Yes, the treasury itself wasn’t fully undefended. There were some cleverly placed traps here, physical ones at least. If they accidentally triggered them, the whole settlement will be alerted to their presence.

Fortunately, both of them knew how to safely disarm this trap. And they did so without any problems at all.

After they looted the place clean, Derek paused and whispered something in Ren’s ear.

Hearing what he said, Ren shrugged. He wasn’t against the plan, actually. In fact, he thought that it’ll save them more time and effort. So, he agreed.

Around ten minutes later, they came out of the estate and returned to the rest. Fortunately, Jen and the other two didn’t encounter any accidents. They’re safe and sound, exactly the same before they left earlier.

"What took you guys so long?" Jen complained a bit.

"Don’t look at me. Derek’s up to his usual shenanigans again." Ren shrugged and didn’t hesitate to shift the blame to his party leader immediately.

"Okay, in my defense, the opportunity was right there! It’ll save us so much time and effort. I might’ve gone a little bit excessive, yes, but it will certainly make our jobs way easier!"

"I’m lost. What are you talking about?" Jules scratched his head in confusion.

"Knowing Derek, it probably has something to do with explosions, again," Kaycee commented off-handedly.

"Spot on," Ren confirmed, giving her a thumbs up.

"Did you plant explosives in the treasury?" Jen used an accusatory tone.

"Of course! Who do you think you’re talking to?" Derek snorted, looking arrogant and confident. "I left at least twenty barrels in there, they’re ready to level that whole estate whenever I want."

The rest of the party, minus Ren, looked at each other in speechlessness. Derek and his love for explosions were really weird.

"Okay, why aren’t you blowing it up yet?" Jen asked curiously.

"Patience, young one." Derek rolled her eyes. "We’ll trigger the trap they left behind there first to alert the Goblin Lord and Goblin Elites to treasury. They’d rush over there surely. Once they’re there, I’d bring down the roof on them. That should make our jobs easier."

"Right. Whenever you’re ready then." Jen shook her head; she can’t really back down now since Derek has already made a decision.

Trying!!

A sharp screeching sound tore through the silence of the settlement. Just as Derek predicted, the Goblin Lord and Goblin Elites practically flew to the estate to catch the thief.

As Derek wore a malicious smile, Ren walked towards Jules and hid behind his back. This made the latter confused, so he asked:

"Why are you hiding behind me?"

"Because you have a shield," Ren replied non-chalantly.

Kaycee’s eyes flashed, and she hurriedly followed, which only added to Jules’s confusion.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Didn’t hear him?" Ren asked, pointing at their nearly maniacal party leader who already pressed the trigger. "He said he left twenty barrels full of explosives in the treasury of that building, enough to level it completely. Said building is just over there, and we haven’t moved at all. What do you think happens?"

Jules’s and Jen’s eyes widened in horror.

BOOOOOM!!