My job list is full of alien girls.

Chapter 20: I think they can still be saved...

"What...is this?"

Don Quixote looked troubled as he looked at the disgusting scene before him.

"It should be the area where goblins breed," Rhodes said, stroking his chin.

Before them was a small underground cavern. In the center of the cavern was a green pool of water that bubbled up from time to time. The water was murky, but what was truly disgusting was the scene inside.

Several female wild animals lay sprawled inside, their fur largely stripped away, revealing scarred skin beneath. Their eyes were cloudy and lifeless, and they didn't even have the strength to look up at Rhodes and his group.

Compared to their meager vitality, their abnormally swollen bellies and the goblin cubs surrounding them are more eye-catching.

"Waaah..."

One of the beasts let out a painful whimper, its body convulsing violently, and a slimy goblin cub slid off its body.

Newborn goblin cubs are only slightly larger than ordinary babies, but they have already learned to eat and hunt.

The moment it landed, it instinctively squeezed into its fellows, mimicking their rush to their mother's body, and began to obtain the flesh and blood it needed for growth by gnawing on their wounds.

If it can't grab what it can't, it will pounce on its weaker companions, tearing at their flesh so that it can grow stronger.

"This...this is hell..." Don Quixote's voice trembled, clearly having never seen such a horrific sight. "To think that such an evil place exists in the world, it's...it's..."

No wonder she reacted so strongly; Susanna and Milan had already turned pale and had gone to the side to vomit.

In fact, the only one who could remain calm at the moment was Rhodes. Two months of experience collecting corpses had given him an extraordinary mental resistance to the disgusting scene before him.

He crouched down and picked up a bone from the nearest wall.

This is a human thigh bone, the flesh and blood on it have been gnawed clean, and there are teeth marks of all sizes.

He looked in the direction of the bones and saw a small mountain of bones piled up in the corner of the pool.

There are bones of various wild animals, as well as some human skeletons.

One of the skeletons still had a half-rotted adventurer's nameplate hanging around its neck, the writing on it long since blurred and illegible.

Rod took out the coarse cloth gloves he always carried, put them on, picked them up, and examined them closely. Judging from the dampness and rot of the wooden dog tag, he estimated that the other party had arrived here about 3 to 5 days ago.

He tucked it into his pocket and put it away. Rhodes's gaze swept across the pool and finally settled on a corner where goblin cubs were piled up.

"Hmm...Found it."

A closer look reveals two human boys lying by the pool; they are the same two children who asked him last night "how to become a powerful adventurer."

Most of their bodies were submerged in the pool water, and there was hardly a piece of intact skin on their bodies.

Several goblin cling to the surface, their tiny, sharp teeth constantly gnawing at their flesh, dark red blood flowing down their bodies and slowly spreading in the pool.

"It's those two children, they..."

Susanna, who was following him, turned pale. Seeing this, she wanted to rush over to save them, but the moment she saw the situation, her legs went weak and she almost fell.

She trembled with fear as she looked at the writhing goblin cubs and their horrific, gaping wounds from constant gnawing.

"I, I..."

Susanna raised her staff, her lips trembling as she tried to chant a spell to drive away the cubs, but the white light she conjured only flashed twice before extinguishing.

At this moment, she was unable to concentrate on casting spells; the terrifying scene before her caused her a strong mental shock.

"What should I do? What should I do...?"

Without saying a word, Rod resolved her fear and confusion with his actions.

He took out his gloves and put them on, then picked up the squeaking goblin cubs one by one and tossed them aside.

"squeak--!"

The cub let out a sharp, weak growl, its fragile skin slamming directly against the rock, and for a moment it could only exhale but not inhale.

"Should we kill them?" Susanna looked down at one of the cubs lying at her feet, unable to bear watching it howl in agony as it lay dying. "But they're all cubs..."

Looking at those tiny, still-developing bodies, she couldn't bring herself to harm them. These goblin cubs looked just like newborn human babies. Even though she knew they would become ferocious and terrifying in the future, she couldn't bring herself to wield a weapon against such creatures right now.

Not to mention, the Adventurers' Guild has rules that monster cubs should not be hunted or stolen unless absolutely necessary...

Rhodes shook his head, then stomped on the two crawling cubs, his movements clean and swift without a moment's hesitation.

Some of the cubs were driven mad by the smell of their brethren's blood, and those that were able to move began to bark and howl at Rhodes.

Rhodes drew a long arrow from his quiver with a flick of his wrist.

A flash of cold light,

Within seconds, the cub in front of him collapsed to the ground, green blood splattered everywhere, convulsing and motionless.

"If we let them grow," Rhodes turned to look at the two dying boys and the small mountain of bones beside them, "one day, the corpses will fill this cave until it overflows."

Upon hearing this, Susanna remained silent for a moment.

She looked at the barely alive cub at her feet, raised the tip of her staff,

then,

I poked it down.

The staff plunged to the bottom, and the goblin cub let out a final, weak squeak before going completely still.

Susanna opened her eyes and looked at the small corpse under the tip of the cane. Her face was frighteningly pale, and her fingers trembled uncontrollably.

She instinctively turned to look at Rod, only to find that he had already pulled the two unconscious children out of the pool and was checking on them.

A moment later, she heard Rod say.

"He's still breathing."

To ensure the cubs had fresh food, the goblin leader surprisingly didn't kill them. The two children, captured this morning, hadn't yet been completely drained of their life force. Coupled with the presence of the pool of water, although their faces were ashen and they had already fainted from the pain, they were still clinging to life.

"This, this is too much..." Susanna's voice choked as she watched him uncover the wounds.

After being repeatedly bitten, its flesh had rotted and become a clump of blood and filth, and in some places, it had even grown small, dark red tumors that looked exactly like those on the goblin leader's body, making it look particularly terrifying.

"Can they...can they really be saved?" Her voice was hoarse as she raised her staff, a faint white light flickering within it. "I'll try..."

The gentle, healing light fell on the wound, but as soon as it touched the festering flesh, it quickly dimmed as if it had been stained with something dirty.

The rotting tissue clung tightly to the new, tender flesh that was trying to break through the soil, and pus mixed with blood kept seeping out. The healing speed could not keep up with the speed at which the ulceration spread.

"Yes, I'm sorry, I can't... I... I can't save them..."

Susanna lowered her head and sobbed softly.

"Is it infected and inflamed?" Rod muttered to himself, stroking his chin. "I guess we'll have to clean the wound first, won't we?"

"You knew all along that this wouldn't work?" Alina asked in her consciousness space.

"Well, after all, my method has risks."

He had assumed that Susanna's healing magic would directly eliminate those abnormal body tissues, thus saving him, an amateur, the trouble of getting involved.

After all, debridement could cause massive bleeding, which could cause two already weak people to succumb to their injuries and die.

But now things are alright, we might as well try anything.

After a brief moment of thought, he drew the short dagger from his waist.

A cold glint flashed in the dim cave, startling Susanna.

"Lord Hiro, what... what are you doing?" Her voice trembled slightly, thinking that Rhodes intended to directly relieve the two children's pain, so she whispered her dissuasion:

"I think they can still be saved..."

"Oh, you're still here."

Rod paused, looked at Susanna beside him, and suddenly pulled two bottles of healing potion from his pocket and put them in her arms:

"Pour this into their mouths later and see if it can prolong their lives."

"What?"

Before Susanna could react, Rhodes flicked his wrist, and the snow-white blade cleanly sliced ​​into the festering flesh.

Without any hesitation, he first carefully removed the entire piece of rotten, blackened, and suppurating flesh, then precisely pried open those bulging, hardened, dark red lumps, and with bold, sweeping movements, dug out all the abnormally proliferating tissue.

"Ugh—!!"

The unconscious boy suddenly convulsed, letting out a painful groan. Cold sweat instantly soaked through his tattered clothes, and his face turned as white as paper.

"what……"

Susanna covered her mouth in fright, tears welling in her eyes, but she bit her lip and kept quiet, afraid of disturbing Rhodes.

But looking at the rotten flesh and dark red blood clots hanging on the dagger, his stomach churned, and he almost vomited again.

The sight of the rotting tissue mixed with pus and blood falling to the ground sent chills down Susanna's spine. She gripped her staff tightly, barely daring to breathe.

Without even looking up, Rod's movements were frighteningly steady. After cleaning the second wound, he wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.

"What are you standing there for?" He looked up at Susanna, who was frozen in place, and asked in a puzzled tone, "Give her the medicine now."

"Ah, oh... okay!"

Susanna snapped back to her senses, her hands trembling as she unscrewed the bottle, knelt down, and carefully aimed it at the boy's mouth, slowly pouring the pale green healing liquid into his mouth.

The medicine slid down his throat, and the boy's body, which had been convulsing in pain, visibly eased. His breathing, which had been so weak it was almost stopping, gradually became steady.

After Rod finished cleaning the other one, Susanna did the same again.

After the two bottles of medicine were finished, both of them felt their chests rise and fall clearly. Although their faces were still pale, they no longer looked ashen and dying.

Susanna stared wide-eyed at Rhodes, then at the wound that was gradually healing, her face filled with shock.

"They actually managed to stabilize..."

She instinctively covered her mouth, staring at the scene in disbelief.

As a priest, she had always relied solely on divine magic for healing... she never imagined there was such a treatment method...

"Lord Hiro... how did you manage to do that?" Susanna's eyes held a mixture of fear, confusion, admiration, and curiosity. "I've never seen anything like it before..."

"It's somewhat similar to those barbaric bloodletting treatments, yet it's so effective..." Milan, watching all this silently from afar, muttered to herself, "Just who are you, Hero?"

The awkward feeling from being rescued by Rhodes was still there, but it was now overshadowed by a deeper curiosity.

A few seconds later, Milan straightened his robes and walked over.

"Don Quixote has already dealt with all the remaining goblin cubs," she said, her tone still indifferent, but less arrogant towards Rhodes. "Or rather, all the moving monsters in the cave have been cleared out."

Rod looked up at her and nodded.

Milan didn't leave. Her gaze passed over him and landed on the light green pool in the center, where she took out a piece of stalactite that shimmered with a faint green light.

Milan kept it in a crystal bottle, its surface still covered with a moist, emerald-green liquid that shimmered faintly in the dim cave.

"I noticed it before; the energy fluctuations emanating from this stone are quite unique." She said, her tone unconsciously becoming excited.

"So, I did a simple test on the composition of the pool water and the power of those beasts, and found that they came from the same source."

Rhodes leaned closer to sense it, pondered for a moment, and then asked:

"Is the pool water actually just a large amount of diluted stalactite sap?"

"Yes," Milan said, a rare moment of energy in her eyes, her gaze sweeping over the rampant moss and vines growing on the rock face.

"This force seems to contain a very special vitality, which accelerates the growth of plants and animals here."

"It also increases the goblin's reproduction rate, makes their wounds heal quickly, and makes them stronger."

Rhodes nodded, and said thoughtfully, "No wonder that guy's vitality is so tenacious. He's not completely dead even after being attacked by your Explosive Flame Technique."

"I..." Milan paused upon hearing this, "It's my fault."

"?"

Rod looked at her in confusion, but Milan remained silent.

The two were speechless for a moment.

until,

"Lord Hiro! Lord Hiro!"

Don Quixote ran over, carrying his greatsword and clutching a large string of goblin left ears strung together with hemp rope. The string was a bright green and was still dripping blood.

"These are the ears of the cubs we just cleaned; we cut them all off!" She held the ears up to Rhodes, grinning broadly. "Looks like they could fetch a lot of bounty!"

"Yes," Milan chimed in from the side.

She looked at Rhodes and said in a calm and friendly tone, "You deserve the most credit for eradicating the goblin leader and this breeding nest this time."

"So, all the bounty from this operation is yours, how about it?"

Rod glanced at her, then looked at the crystal bottle containing stalactite fragments in Milan's hand.

"You're quite perceptive," the learned mage said with a slightly embarrassed laugh as his intentions were exposed. "That's right, this is all I want."

"But I want it too."