I'm Trying To Go Broke, So Why Do I Keep Getting Richer?!-Chapter 224: Start Simulation

"These are his footsteps. We’re heading in the right direction." The elf rose from the dirt, giving a sharp nod of confirmation.

The footprints were a perfect match for those found near the slaughtered goblin guard.

"Good. This foolish human is going to lead us straight to the otherworlders’ nest."

Though this hunting party consisted of only twenty powerful demihumans, they were merely the vanguard.

They moved fast, carving a clear path through the woods. Behind them, a massive tide of a hundred thousand monsters followed, moving slower.

The small team chased after Leo’s trail, and eventually managed to reach what appeared to be an ordinary looking cave.

"Is this the place where he is hiding?" A demihuman asked.

"He entered this place." The elf who was an expert at tracking a person nodded, especially since the last footsteps before the cave were clearly visible.

As she looked down on a human, she didn’t even care about investigating properly. With such clear evidence, there was no need for overthinking.

"Shall we enter alone? Or wait for the army?" A goblin who appeared to be holding a high position, asked.

"The army can’t enter this small cave. It will be too crowded even if we took a few thousand of them. So there is no point waiting for them. We will enter ourselves."

The demihumans carved another mark for the army, to tell them that they had entered the cave.

After placing a mark, they entered the cave that they didn’t know much about.

Even though it was the largest demihuman empire in this world, they didn’t really go around checking random caves.

It didn’t mean there was no one who didn’t enter the cave, even if accidentally. The only difference was that those who entered it, never returned to tell others about it.

The vanguard of the demihuman empire entered the cave, believing Leo to be hiding inside. They even had greed in their eyes, believing that they might gain more than they had thought.

Once the entire team had entered, sounds of leaves rustling came from the distance, as a figure climbed down a tree, landing on his feet.

The person moved closer to the cave, but this time, he was sure to erase his footsteps, only leaving the old trail that led to the cave.

He stopped before the cave, and looked at the mark made by the demihumans.

There was something carved near the mark, which appeared to be the demihumans telling the soldiers to wait outside. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Even though Leo didn’t know the language, he could at least guess that much.

A smirk appeared on his lips as he erased the words that were carved on the soil, having no interest in the army waiting outside. The more people that entered the cave, the better.

If they succeeded in killing the monsters inside, then it was good. So what if they could find their way to his universe? That place was his playground, and it was beyond the imagination of this backwards society.

And if they failed and died inside, even then it was good for Leo. He could at least wait here for the demihumans to send more and more powerful people inside the cave.

After cleaning the words on the ground, Leo returned, albeit slowly. Just to clear his new footstep was also something that was time consuming as it slowed him down.

Once again, he returned to the tree that was far away, and climbed on top, hiding himself behind the leaves on the tree.

A few hours later, he felt the ground tremble. It was like there was a massive earthquake. He looked back and saw something massive in the distance.

As far as his eyes could see, only demihumans could be seen. He couldn’t even count their exact numbers, but it was clearly beyond his imagination.

There were at least over a hundred thousand demihumans in the army, enough to flatten any terrain.

For a world like this, it was an army that could sweep through everything in its path. But in his universe, even an army of this size wasn’t enough to scare him.

After all, in the era of technology, numbers didn’t mean as much as firepower did.

The army soon reached the entrance of the cave, covering the entire terrain.

There were so many demihumans that there was barely any empty space. Quite a few demihumans were even standing below the tree where Leo was hiding.

The leaders of the demihuman army looked at the marker left by the vanguards before the cave, but there were no further commands.

The demihumans looked at each other’s faces, wondering what to do. If there was no command and only a marker, it usually meant that they still needed to follow as the vanguard was still on the trail.

"Can we even enter this small cave with so many people?"

"Do you want to ignore instructions? Maybe the cave leads to the other side which has more space? We are in no place to question the higher ups."

Although the demihumans were confused, they still ordered their soldiers to follow them inside the cave.

And thus, a massive wave of beasts started entering the cave, which was only wide enough for ten people to enter at the same time.

Just to enter the cave with such a massive army, it took what felt like an eternity.

"This many people should be enough to kill a few dungeon beasts, right?" Leo relaxed on the tree branch now that there was no demihuman under the tree.

He once again climbed down the tree, and turned around, walking away from the cave. He returned to the lake, and on the way, picked up a few fruits that looked edible.

After drinking his fill of water and finishing fruits, he returned to the cave and climbed on the tree and started waiting.

Time kept passing slowly. Minutes turned into hours, and hours turned into days even as Leo kept waiting.

He only occasionally came down and tree to find food, and have some water before returning, surviving like that.

After seven days passed, Leo finally sighed in relief, realising that there didn’t seem to be much point in waiting. The demihumans were most probably not going to return.

"Although a massive army won’t be as effective in a narrow space as they would be outside, I still didn’t think a few dungeon beasts would be able to take them down. What should I do now?"

Leo was about to climb down the tree again when he suddenly froze. He didn’t know why, but he felt a chill run down his spine, as if something really dangerous was approaching.

All thoughts about getting down the tree left his body and he simply remained seated, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead.

He looked towards the cave entrance, believing that the feeling was coming from within. Was a dungeon beast going to come out from within?

Did he provoke the dungeon beasts to the point that they were going to leave their homes? He wasn’t sure. He really hoped that he was wrong.

However, soon he realized that it might not be as good to be wrong as he thought.

The feeling of fear wasn’t coming from the cave. Instead, it was coming from behind him, as the aura of death approached closer.

Leo looked back, catching sight of what appeared like an ordinary goblin.

Just a single goblin with nothing special about him, at least as per his looks. He was only a little taller and more humanoid than other goblins that he had seen.

However, it was that goblin’s aura which made Leo freeze in place. It felt just as threatening as the aura of a Seraphim or the Necropolis Overlord.

The goblin was carrying a black sword on his back which felt like a treasure comparable to the sword of Necropolis that Leo had received before.

He wasn’t even sure if the two swords clashed, which one was going to come out on top. Unfortunately, he didn’t even have that sword with him to be able to test it.

Even if he had that sword, he was certain that he would have lost since the strength of a weapon also depended on the person holding it.

The goblin stopped before the cave, and looked at the mark on the ground in confusion.

He raised his hand, and started tapping the air weirdly. For some reason, it reminded Leo of himself, especially when he used the system screen.

"No, a Goblin can’t have a system. That’s absurd,"

Leo shook his head in disbelief, believing that he was probably trying to use some spell which made it appear like he was tapping the air.

The goblin then crossed his arms and closed his eyes, saying, "Start Simulation."

Even though the goblin was far away, Leo was still able to hear his words clearly. And they left him just as stunned, especially since it felt like an advanced word.