Ichor Cell-Chapter 61: The Return I

Ichor Cell-Chapter 61: The Return I

“Did she just… Did she just get swallowed into a dungeon?” Alex stared at the spot where the guild master had just been standing just moments prior.
The absurdity of the turn of events rendered him speechless.
Just when they’d finally won, the goblin started self-destructing, almost taking them both with it. Just when it seemed like they’d survived even that, the guild master got kidnapped by a crack in space.
“Well,” he muttered eventually. “That’s new.”
He took a slow breath and rolled his shoulders, forcing the tension out of them. His body responded sluggishly, regeneration still knitting over some of the scrapes that he’d gained from the blast. He felt heavy, drained in that deep, unpleasant way that only came after pushing himself too far for too long.
Exhaustion, nothing more.
Without any immediate threat demanding his attention, the destruction stood out more starkly: trees snapped and uprooted, the earth torn open and scorched, fragments of stone scattered like shrapnel. The goblin was very thoroughly gone, but the land would remember the battle for much longer.
Alex glanced down at himself, flexed his fingers once, then looked back toward the crater. No point standing around. If the guild master had been taken somewhere, he had neither the tools nor the information to do anything about it right now. Staring wouldn’t change that.
He cast one last glance back to the spot where she had disappeared, then started walking back.
Although Alex wasn’t sure in which direction the city lay, he at least knew how to get back to the clearing with the den. Hopefully he could figure out his next steps from there. The smell hit him before the sight did. Blood, shit, and the lingering stink of goblins pressed into the air, thick enough that he had to hold his breath to avoid gagging.
Goblin bodies lay scattered around the clearing, with a veritable mountain of them piled up at the edge, where the adventurers had made their stand. Some were crushed, some half-buried where the collapse of the den entrance had caught them. Nothing moved.
Good. The only good goblin was a dead goblin.
Alex adjusted his course slightly to skirt the worst of it. There was no reason to linger here longer than necessary.
His boot struck something solid.
Alex looked down.
A body lay near the treeline, partially obscured by brush. Armour scraped and dented, one arm twisted awkwardly beneath the torso. He instinctively dismissed it as an unfortunate casualty, but then his brain caught up with his eyes.
“Remus?” he asked.
Indeed, laid out on the ground in front of him, his chest faintly rising and falling, was the gold rank adventurer.
Although he knew that the man was breathing, he still knelt down to make sure. Getting a closer look at the man’s face, Alex had to suppress a gag at the branch going through one of his eyes, blood and fluid trailing down his face.
“Oh, that is so unfortunate.” He muttered after he’d regained control of himself. “You’ve had it rough, huh.”
The man didn’t respond.
“Yeah,” he muttered. “That tracks. Baseball?”
Considering the man’s state, Alex wasn’t sure whether to wake him or not. When he shifted the adventurer around to get a better look at him, the choice was taken away from him.
With a pained groan, Remus shifted beneath Alex’s hands.
The sound was wet and ugly, pulled from somewhere deep in his chest, and it took him a moment to drag in a proper breath. His remaining eye fluttered, then snapped open with a sharpness that didn’t match the rest of him.
“…You,” he rasped.
Alex leaned back slightly. “Good news. You’re alive.”
Remus tried to move and immediately failed, his body locking up as pain lanced through him. He sucked in air through clenched teeth, a low sound slipping out despite his obvious effort to keep it in. His good hand dug into the dirt, knuckles whitening.
“Don’t,” Alex said flatly, pressing him back down. “You’re not winning that one.”
Remus glared at him, then let himself settle, breathing shallowly until the worst of it passed. His gaze slid past Alex, taking in the clearing, the collapsed den entrance, the piles of goblin corpses.
“Was the raid a success?” He asked.
“It was.” Alex nodded. “The variant is dead, as you can see, and the goblins aren’t going anywhere either.”
The man relaxed at those words, though he winced as the motion aggravated his wounds.
“Could you…?” He started when the pain passed. “Inside my armour, over my heart, there’s a little pocket. It’s got a healing draught in it.”
Alex hesitated only a moment before reaching inside Remus’ armour, fingers carefully working past torn leather and bent metal until he felt the small pocket. He pulled out a squat vial. The enchantments densely covering the metal container explained how it hadn’t been destroyed along with the rest of the armour.
‘Good thinking.’
Alex realised.
‘If there’s one thing you want to not break, it’s your emergency healing supplies.’
“Try not to choke,” he said, unscrewing the lid.
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Remus took it with a shaky hand and downed the contents in two careful swallows. He grimaced immediately, face twisting as the potion went to work, warmth spreading through his chest. The change wasn’t dramatic, but his breathing eased, and the blood leaking out of his injuries ceased.
“Thanks,” he muttered.
Alex nodded and leaned back on his heels. “Don’t get excited. You’re still a mess.”
Remus snorted weakly, then sobered. His remaining eye shifted back to Alex’s face.
“And the guild master?” he asked. “Where is she?”
Alex hesitated. “She’s… not here.”
“That’s not an answer.” Remus said flatly.
Alex exhaled through his nose. “The variant blew itself up, taking a good chunk of the forest with it. She tanked it like it was nothing. Then space cracked open and ate her.”
“…What?” The man was not impressed with that explanation.
“I told you everything I know.” Alex shrugged. “I’m not very knowledgeable on magical theory and stuff, so I can’t explain it any better than I have. A big explosion happened, and it looked like the space around the guild master didn’t like that.”
Remus stared at him for a moment. “Take me there.”
Alex raised an eyebrow. “Are you su-”
“Take me there!” The adventurer raised his voice, clenching a fist.
“Okay, okay!” Alex raised his hands defensively. “I’ll do it, but you should seriously go find some medical help. You don’t look so good.”
The man ignored him as he grit his teeth and got up. Gently gripping the piece of wood sticking out of his eye, he released a quick pulse of mana and turned most of it to dust, only leaving a small piece embedded in the socket to prevent further damage.
“After you.” He said gruffly, limping his way after a horrified Alex.
The walk to the other clearing was mercifully short.
While it took Alex a mere minute to traverse the few hundred meters separating the goblin den and the explosion site, it took the two of them almost five. When they finally reached the crater, Remus stopped at its edge, breathing hard.
“This is it?” He asked.
“This is it.” Alex confirmed.
Remus moved forward slowly, scanning the ground with a careful, methodical eye. He circled the crater once, then again, wider the second time, as if something might have been thrown clear. He crouched near the edge, grimacing as his ribs protested, and pressed a hand to the stone.
When he straightened again, he stood still for a long moment, jaw clenched, his breathing uneven. Whatever he’d been hoping to find wasn’t there.
“…Alright,” he said eventually.
Alex waited.
“I’ll take your word for it for now.” Remus looked back toward the den clearing they’d left behind. “Unfortunately, we still have work to do.”
“We do?” Alex raised an eyebrow.
Remus nodded. “We buried the den. We didn’t clear it.” He gestured back toward the mound of stone and earth sealing the entrance. “Some of them will be dead from the collapse. Some won’t. And goblins are good diggers. If even a handful are still alive down there, they’ll work their way out sooner or later.”
Alex stared at him for a second, then looked back toward the rubble.
“Of course they are,” he said. “Why wouldn’t they be.”
Alex grimaced. He’d been hoping that they could just bury them and be done with it. Simply starve the little green fucks to death. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be.
“Alright,” he said. “So, what’s the plan.”
Remus straightened as much as his battered body allowed. “I’ll open the entrance properly. After that, you go in.”
Alex looked at him. “You sure about that?”
Remus flexed his fingers once, then let his hand drop back to his side. “I’ll be more of a liability than help down there,” he said. “I can still cast spells. Not much else.”
Alex nodded once. No argument there.
They headed back toward the den clearing in silence. Remus stepped up to the rubble and crouched. He brushed away loose dirt near the edge, revealing a narrow gap where the collapse had been incomplete.
“Do you have an idea for how many of them are left?” Alex asked. “I’m kinda running on fumes here, so if there’s a lot, it might be better to wait until I’ve recovered a bit.”
“There’s enough,” The adventurer answered, “That leaving this for later is not an option. You’ll have to do it now.”
“Great, that’s exactly the number I was hoping for.” Alex snarked sarcastically. “’Enough’, that sure clears things up.”
Remus ignored him. He drew a slow breath, steadied himself, and raised one hand. Mana gathered, then burst out of his hand and sank into the stone.
The stone shifted. The rubble peeled back in a controlled slide, opening a narrow gap just large enough for a man to squeeze through. Darkness yawned behind it, thick and oppressive.
The smell hit immediately.
Even without breathing, Alex felt it crawl up the back of his throat. It was like the stench of the clearing, but multiplied tenfold and wrapped in mouldy cheese. Something scrabbled inside, claws striking stone, frantic and disorganised.
Remus stepped back. “That’s as far as I go.”
Alex peered into the gap, eyes adjusting quickly. Pale shapes pressed together in the darkness, bodies moving in a tight, panicked mass.
“Can I borrow your sword?” He suddenly asked, surprising the other man.
“Why? I thought you fought barehanded.” The adventurer asked.
“Sure, usually.” Alex shrugged. “Unfortunately, I am way too tired to fight effectively right now, plus goblins are kinda nasty, so I’d rather use a weapon.”
Remus hesitated slightly before agreeing, unsheathing his sword and handing it hilt first to Alex. “You better bring it back without a scratch.” He warned.
“As long as you don’t collapse the entrance on me.” Alex smirked.
“I couldn’t even if I wanted to.” Remus snorted. “I’m all out of juice.”
Alex slipped inside.
The entrance tunnel branched almost immediately, splitting into three uneven passages that twisted away from each other at sharp angles. The walls here were rough and claw-marked, gouged by unprofessional digging. Goblins hadn’t carved this place cleanly; they had chewed it out of the earth, widening tunnels wherever it suited them and abandoning sections whenever the stone grew stubborn. The result was a sprawling, ugly maze that felt more grown than built.
He sealed his lungs and moved forward without breathing.
The stench was worse the deeper he went. Rot, old blood, damp fur, and something sour that clung to the back of his throat even without air. He ignored it and pressed on, senses tuned outward as he followed the faintest sounds of movement. Scraping claws. Shallow, panicked breathing. The wet shuffle of feet on mud.
The first survivors came at him in a pair.
They burst out of a side tunnel with shrill cries, half-starved and frantic, one missing an arm entirely. Alex didn’t slow. His blade took the first through the neck and kept going, momentum carrying it cleanly into the second’s chest. Both dropped in a heap at his feet.
While he certainly wasn’t trained in swordsmanship, his superior physical prowess ensured that he was still a deadly threat even with simple stabs and cuts. At least enough to dispatch goblins with ease.
The caves opened up and narrowed again unpredictably. Some chambers were wide enough to house dozens, now empty save for scattered bones and discarded tools. Others forced him to duck, the ceiling scraping against his shoulders. He checked every nook, every side passage, methodical and thorough. If any goblins were left, they wouldn’t be because he missed them.
Another encounter came further in, three this time. They’d tried to barricade themselves behind a pile of loose stone, crude and desperate. It didn’t help. Alex simply walked around the obstruction and tore through them moments later, blood splattering across the wall in dark arcs.
Time blurred. He stopped counting kills after the first few dozen. Each fight was brief and ugly, never more than a few seconds, the goblins too scattered and too broken to mount anything resembling resistance. They ran when they could. Hid when they couldn’t. Neither option saved them.
The maze seemed endless.
Alex paused in a larger cavern, testing the air as he finally took a breath. The air was foul enough that he immediately regretted it and sealed his lungs again. His regeneration ticked along steadily, cleaning up shallow cuts and aches without complaint, but the exhaustion lingered beneath it, heavy and insistent.
He wiped his blade clean on a loincloth and moved on.
‘Another day, another bunch of shit to kill.’
He mused as he heard yet another telltale scurrying in the dark.

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Chapter 61: The Return I