“Where are we?” a voice coming from inside a pitch-black room.

“19th floor,” answered another voice. A rather heavy heaving breath.

“It’s almost dawn, we need to hurry up,” said Jason as he glanced for a slight second at his wristwatch.

Heaving breaths filled this dark room as neither of those people spoke a word. Too many things were circulating in their head right now and considering the hell they went through, they were surprised they managed to survive through it.

Dan’s hands couldn’t stop shaking for a while now since it didn’t stop moving around for the last couple of hours as three of them made their way up through the staircase until reaching the ninetieth floor and their journey wasn’t easy even with the backing of this surreal man.

Who knows how many goblins did he killed for the past couple of hours. All he could remember was the awful stench and the constant yelling escaping from his mouth. For some reason, the thought of yelling out made him invigorated with the will to battle against these goblins.

At this point in time, his mind was too clouded to remember everything that had just happened. But his journey didn’t come without a reward. Both he and Pixie found a few weapon artifacts dropped by some of these goblins but right now the two artifacts in the form of a dagger and a rusty sword were only left with their hilts and blade no longer there.

They didn’t want to use it at first considering it was their task to secure any known artifacts but their lives were on the line and with their military-given weapon turning dull and chipped, they didn’t have a choice but to use it. The end result was them having hilts as their weapons.

“We’re out of weapons,” Pixie said expressing her concern.

She over the course of this gruesome period had learned what it meant to be a soldier in the midst of battle. Even after a horrifying experience that might end up in a bad turn, she rebounded back and transformed herself for the better.

Although her body kept shivering while fighting against those goblins but her will to stay alive was stronger. She too found out that yelling out in a fashion of a battle cry helped her tremendously in the midst of battle. For some reason, she felt like they were brought over to a time of the medieval period where only cold weapons did the talking.

“Use your fists, as of now we don’t have the time and I’m worried that our extraction won’t end up well,” said Jason.

Pixie could only nod to the suggestion. She also knew that she could kill those goblins with her bare hands considering how much points she distributed into her strength. The constant battle brought their levels reaching eight. A bit underwhelming considering how many they fought but since their foes were goblins, the experience they earned wasn’t much. Overall, she just felt naked not having a weapon to swing around.

“Besides, both of you guys got two new abilities, I doubt you’ll be having any problems fighting against these guys,” Jason reminded them another error they had made.

Yet considering the situation, the duo really didn’t have a choice but to utilize those scrolls. It piqued Jason’s interest at first but considering one of them was identical to his which was swordsmanship and the other one also similar to passive mastery that involved their fists but he let it slid away from his grasp. To be fair, he didn’t kill the goblins that dropped those scrolls and since he had an agreement he might as well kept a hold of it.

Jason himself didn’t come out empty-handed after a blood bathing experience. Blood Edge Strike went up by a notch and changed into a new skill called Blood Edge Combo. Just by the name of it made Jason’s heart fluttered like a teenage girl having a crush. It just went up and the power behind it was still a mystery.

“Two more floors to go,” said Dan as he prepared himself as he cracked his knuckles a few times.

Pixie also stood up readied for what was about to come.

“Let’s go,” Jason said.

The trio went out of the room as they ran back to the staircase. The moment the door to the staircase was opened a heavy stench of foulness assaulted their nostrils. They were mildly affected by it as they did spend most of their time battling at the staircase. They stepped around dead corpses of goblins making their way up the stairs.

Pixie kicked a few corpses out of a way just because she hated the sight of them. Dan kept his eyes above as he was waiting for a new wave of enemies. But surprisingly, nothing comes out.

Jason didn’t mind the empty welcoming scene. To be frank, a welcoming community would always greet them whenever they stepped into a new floor with a drove of goblins barging out from the staircase door, but with the staircase door to the twentieth floor remained tightly shut, Jason let it be and proceed to the last remaining floor, the top floor of this whole entire building, the twenty-first floor.

“Wait, are we just going to the top?” Pixie asked.

“Why? You want to explore the peaceful floor? Be my guess,” Jason retorted.

Pixie didn’t say a word as she knew how stupid it was for her to question it but considering what she had been through, she had a thought that sweeping the whole floor first might be the proper way to avoid unnecessary circumstances.

The door to the twenty-first door was open. Jason walked inside without fear and caution as he still had an overwhelming advantage against these goblins. Yet he felt something was odd. Looking left to right, the corridor was empty without any goblins.

“Clear,” Jason said.

Dan and Pixie went through the door as their guards were up. Their eyes went around the whole place surveying for any possible threats. Pixie was holding on tight to the rusty broken hilt of a dagger.

Dan, on the other hand, had his fists readied for a bout.

“Are they all gone?” Dan asked.

The first thing that came into mind was whether they wiped out the entire goblin community living in this building. It made sense considering how many they had killed.

“Where’s the panic room?” but Jason had one thing in mind, the life of a person. Since he received that sum of money, he felt responsible for finishing the task.

Dan looked through the blueprint as he then navigated the trio.

“This way,” Dan said.

They passed through a bunch of corridors with most doors wide open. The floor was a mess and yet something was amiss. For some reason, the awful stench of goblins didn’t linger around here.

Pixie and Dan kept their eyes peeled around the corners. Although they had Jason covering their asses they still didn’t want to overly reliant on the man.

Then they reached the middle of the whole. Right in front of them was a double door with an empty receptionist desk just beside it. Jason read at the nameplate beside the door.

“The CEO office room,” he muttered.

“The panic room is at the end of this entire office room,” Dan said.

“Office room? More like half of the entire floor,” Pixie remarked considering how extravagant the CEO of this company.

“Let’s give them a welcome, shall we,” Jason said as he kicked the double door with a strong kick.

The door was busted wide open as one of them fell out and the other hanging by the edges of the hinge. Dan and Pixie moved inside as they covered Jason from the sides. They were left speechless for a while considering how vast this office, true to Pixie’s words it was too extravagance for an office. Under their night vision, they saw statues decorating the whole place with the glass wall windows showed the nighttime of the outside.

The space was wide and unlike a normal office, it wasn’t cramped and hectic.

“Dan, the girl,” Jason said.

Dan snapped out from his gawk and proceeded to lead the way. It wasn’t much of a big deal as they reached the end of the office or an office hall to be more precise. But before they reached the end, a light was coming out from a gap. Jason saw it and even both Dan and Pixie could too.

“There’s a light,” said Pixie.

Dan removed the headgear and saw a bright light coming from the far end of the office.

“That’s where the panic room is located,” said Dan and he couldn’t help but felt a foreboding.

Jason knitted his eyebrows as seeing that light wasn’t good. The light coming out from a gap possibly meant the panic room was opened and Jason didn’t like what he was about to see.

“Stay on your toes,” Jason said as he took the lead this time and rushed to the source of the light.

Dan and Pixie followed his lead and by the time Jason opened the metal-vault like door, he stood there staring at something.

“Is she here?” Dan asked but as soon as he stepped inside the panic room, his eyes shook.

Pixie too stared at the same thing as the both of them. The panic room was in shambles, food littered across the floor with broken bottles on the floor. Then that smelly raunchy stench familiar to their noses assaulted their sense of smell. At that moment they knew what had happened.

With the light flickering around, the trio stared at the woman lying on the floor. She was naked without a thread on her body, but the eye-catching thing about her was the big bulging belly. She was pregnant but unlike any normal pregnancy. It was as if she had eight babies inside that big bulging belly of hers.

“Pixie!” Dan called out to Pixie as he rushed over to the woman. Pixie followed her along and Dan started to administered first-aid emergency. He checked the well-being of this pregnant young woman.

“I can feel her pulse!” said Dan. Pixie, on the other hand, proceeded to check the girl from top to bottom.

There was no injury nor a scratch on the body of this young woman, except for one place. Pixie who had been searching for any injuries on the woman saw something that she shouldn’t see. Pixie saw the groin area of the young woman and saw a wide gaping hole.

“Hey, can you hear me? We’re here to rescue you,” said Dan as he tried to awake the lifeless looking woman, except he didn’t see yet of what Pixie had seen.

“What happened to her?” Dan asked as her hands didn’t stop slapping the cheeks of this young woman.

“They raped her,” Pixie said.

“What?” Dan glanced at Pixie and saw his comrade bursting into tears.

It was too sudden that he didn’t know how to respond to this. Yet he saw Pixie’s body shaking like mad as if reliving through something that shouldn’t be experienced.

“What’s wrong?” Dan asked.

“They fucking raped her, Dan! Those fucking monsters did this to her!” Pixie shouted.

“That can’t be, but why is she still alive?” Dan asked.

“See that big belly, I doubt it coming from a dude,” Jason finally spoke.

“What?” Dan was shocked after what he just heard.

“Goblins are known to rape humans for the sake of their lust as well as their instinct to procreate,” Jason said.

“But that isn’t possible, they’re monsters,” Dan still couldn’t believe it. He thought that the young woman was pregnant from the beginning.

“and do you see how big her belly is? She can’t be pregnant by a monster with how late her pregnancy is,” Dan said as he was skeptical.

“Goblin gestation period is short, what you see here is possible,” said Jason.

Dan and Pixie were horrified listening to Jason’s words. Pixie couldn’t stop her tears from flowing out as she gripped both of her fists tight.

Dan was befuddled as he could only stare at the barely living state of this young woman.

“No, that isn’t possible. How do you even know that?” Dan questioned Jason’s proclamation. After a bit of thinking, it sounded quite bullshit to his ears.

“I’ve got this eyes. I can see what’s in her belly, and from what it looks like, it’s definitely not human,” Jason said.

An outright lie but Jason didn’t have a choice. He made it up from the description he read regarding goblins through his previous scan. What spoken in the text had a high possibility of happening to this young woman here.

Dan gritted his teeth not knowing how to respond to this situation. Everything sounds unreasonable but at the same it was real. The existence of monsters was bad enough but now he knew these freaking invaders from another dimension could even get their women impregnated. Worse was just the beginning at this point.

“We need to get out of here,” said Dan.

Dan tried to get her up but her body was cold and felt too weak. He didn’t know whether the three of them could get this young woman out of here.

“Pixie, help me out,” said Dan.

Pixie rushed to the other young woman’s side but then Jason came closer.

“We can’t,” Jason said.

“What do you mean we can’t? are you just going to leave her after taking all of that money?” Pixie started to lash out at Jason once more.

The thought of this poor woman ached Pixie’s heart as she too almost experienced the same thing. It couldn’t help that she would retort to her savior.

“She’s not in a good state,” said Jason.

“That’s the reason why we need to get her out of here. She needs proper medical attention,” said Dan.

“No, she might die before that,” said Jason.

“Then are you just going to leave her here?!” shouted Dan.

Jason’s answers were starting to infuriate Dan. A precious life was on the line here and also an important mission at hand. Dan couldn’t let this fail.

“No, I’m going to cut her up,” Jason said.

His words alarmed Dan and Pixie. Both of them went on guard against Jason with their fists and broken dagger.

“Why are you trying to kill her?!” Dan shouted with his eyes readied for a fight. Even if they knew the disparity in strength, Dan and Pixie couldn’t back down.

“Who said anything about killing her? What I meant is those goblin babies inside that belly,” Jason said.