Lyra sat at the head of a table with each of the team leaders. They were having a meeting to discuss the findings in the cavern. With such little left to explore it was time that they shared the plan to mitigate any danger that could befall the expedition and its members.

“Does everyone understand the purpose of this meeting?” Lyra saw everyone nodding their heads.

“Good, today we will be covering the new changes to the team structure starting today.” Lyra said as Citro handed everyone a piece of paper that had all the details in a simplified way.

“First from now on teams will work in pairs to mitigate the danger from these better equipped goblins. Second, if anyone identifies any enemies or locations of strategic value or importance you will retreat and share your findings with us so we can make a proper offensive. Third, if you see a demon, do not engage under any circumstances. Although the likelihood of a demon leading these goblins is low they still are some of the most dangerous and most unpredictable beings known to the world. Are there any questions?”

Seeing as there were no questions Lyra said. “Then you are dismissed.”

*********

‘The gods hate me.’ Arthur avoided eye contact with the other team that he was assigned to work with. ‘Of all the groups it had to be the one with him in it.’ Arthur was of course referring to Saturio Quintilius, the very unlikeable individual who decided to challenge Arthur to a duel that ended in a draw.

Both Saturio and Aelia were talking a few meters away from their respective groups. Soon they called over everyone and began to explain the situation.

“Today we are going to explore the eastern part of this level.” Aelia shouted so that everyone could hear.

“Remember to stay with the group as these caverns are very large and unexplored. If you get lost it will be on you to find a way out.”

Soon the new larger team had all of their stuff ready and they headed out into the deep dark caverns.

For several hours the group marched through the dark caverns only illuminated by their torch light and the various bioluminescent fungi that lived down there. There were several goblin patrols that the group encountered, but the goblins were almost always outnumbered and had far inferior equipment. Their armour was always made of either bone or poor leather, only their weapons were made of any type of metal with even those being at best shoddy iron.

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Since most of the fights happened very quickly Arthur could only contribute by using his hydromancy magic. Since he had reached level ten in the skill he had been able to generate water, that combined with his increased mana pool from his thirty intellect and his reaction speed from his thirty dexterity Arthur was quite dangerous from a distance.

Arthur managed to kill a total of five goblins and wounded several others that were swiftly killed by whoever was closest.

********

Several days pass with Arthur killing ten more goblins during this set up, and a large portion of the cavern system has been mapped and cleared of many of the dangers that were located there. Several cave trolls had been tamed by a few bands of goblins that were swiftly slain. Trolls are tall humanoids that are on average ten feet tall and possess intelligence similar to a three year old human child. Typically the cave variants have grey skin compared to the regional colours of the above ground trolls that range from a chestnut brown to a smoke white.

Arthur’s group encountered one of them, while everyone else fought against the goblins who controlled the beast Saturio and Aelia fought against it using their teamwork and their skills to kill it. They first went for the legs while the other distracted the troll bringing the head down to their level where they targeted the face, particularly the eyes.

Soon the entire combative portion of the expedition had another announcement involving the situation in the caverns.

“Thank you all for coming on such short notice.” Lyra looked at the crowd that looked with annoyance and disinterest.

“I know you are all tired and want to return home soon, but we have one last hurdle before we can.” A few sighs could be heard as Lyra spoke and several others muttered under their breath.

“We have found two large concentrations of goblins that we suspect to be strong holds for goblin warlords.” The room went quiet after the revelation.

A goblin warlord was the highest rank a goblin can achieve, just one rank below the demons that lead them.

Although Arthur did not know this he could tell from everyone's expressions that it was not a good thing.

“Since this discovery we have decided to form three larger groups from all the current groups so that we may be able to properly combat this force of darkness.” Lyra could see from everyone's expressions that they were scared or at least a bit worried. ‘As unfortunate as these circumstances are, we cannot back down now.’ Lyra continued. “The first two groups will be dispatched to face the goblin warlords and their armies, whereas the last group will wait behind to in the event of failure will be required to report to the kingdom what has happened so they can send a task force to stop them before it is too late.”