I’d been stressed out about my mission all day. From the very moment the hunt chief told me about it. I was to head to the local goblin dungeon and wipe them out. Alone. Nobody to back me up. Normally the chief would go himself and, in the event, he couldn’t go he would send all 3 of us. Which was dangerous because one of us could get seriously hurt hunting that many goblins without someone as skill as the hunt chief with us. The dice didn’t roll in my favor today, however. Lilica had been hurt, caught up in a fight with a mother bear accidentally nearing its cubs. Druvien is out of the village escorting one of the council members to the human’s large cities and will be gone for nearly 3 months. The hunt chief was tasked by the elder to guard his daughter while she trained her magic and archery in the forest. While I thought over my options, I saw Savas exiting the village. I remember when I first met him. He’d trapped a bunch or horned rabbits with vines and killed them all with magic. Then when he spotted me, he trapped me intending to do the same until I revealed that I was no threat to him.

Desperate, I raced up to him and asked if he would join me on my hunt. Surely with his help we could take care of the goblins in a few days. All we’d need to do is keep trapping them and wait for them out. Killing any stragglers who manage to slip by his vine trap. I had a plan in mind but what happened was something totally different. I knew Savas was a powerful mage given that I’d seen the elders' magic before, and it could take him a couple minutes to kill a horned rabbit and he wiped out a group of them in less than a minute. It shouldn’t have surprised me when I managed to get a lucky multi-shot off killing two goblins right away. A stone spike jutted from the earth impaling one of the goblins clean through. Raising it into the air like a declaration of war or some kind of ward to keep strangers away. Dead on the spot he kept killing the goblins one after another. Using Stone chips that rose from the ground shot towards the goblins piercing their skulls or sharp blades of wind bisecting them cleanly, striking the objects behind them. Less than 10 minutes in and all the patrols and guards were dead. Hardly making a sound. I knew he was good with magic but he’s far better than I originally thought.

Once we made our way inside Savas’s demeanor changed right away. He seems irritated for some reason. Guessing by the gagging and dry heaving he didn’t like the smell. My theory was further reinforced when he lifted one of his shoeless feet. Giving it a quick look over and grimacing at the sight. He’d always had this walking stick he carried with him with emeralds embedded into it. I assumed that it was a mage's staff given its appearance, but he once again proved me wrong. Getting closer to a patrolling goblin a concentrated blade of air sprung to life from the staff forming a great scythe. Without warning Savas dashed forward bisecting goblin after goblin giving them no chance to call for aid from the other further down. I examined one of the cuts left behind on the stone wall and there was a clear gash left behind by his weapon. The power it held was unreal. Just who is this man and where did he learn all these powerful spells?

We finally made our way to the main chamber of the goblin’s dungeon, and they seemed to be having some sort of celebration. This seemed to make Savas even madder for some reason. He lifted his hands into the air, and I could feel the magic swelling inside him. The next moment there was a tornado ripping through the mass of goblins. Smashing them into walls and other objects. Then he cast another spell on the tornado itself causing any wounds that met the wind to open wider. Bleeding out its victims before they were smashed to death on the walls of their own home. He held the spell for a while, as it sucked more victims to it from other tunnels. Ripping them to shreds and discarding them like trash. After nearly 5 minutes passed it was over. Not a single goblin remained alive in Savas’s wake. I didn’t even have a chance to help. Just who did I get myself involved with?

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Urging Thorn to join me I made my way down to the main room. It seemed like my tornado had sucked everything into this room. Making it much easier to collect the loot from this place while avoiding traps. I picked my way through the detritus and managed to find a couple things I thought would be useful. I found some spell scrolls teaching the spells Scan, Goblins Fire, Fire Bolt, Fog, and Transmute Stone to Goblins Gold. We also found plenty of coins, crude weapons and armor, and food stuff. All of which I told Thorn to take back to his village. Assuming that they needed it. I kept a bit of flour and spices for myself so I could make some bread and season my food but not much.

On a whim I decided to use the scan spell scroll and scan one of the dead goblins and to my surprise it worked. Not only did it work but it triggered some change in my summon spell. Scanning the goblins only revealed its race and combat type. But right after a transparent coin engraved with an oddly familiar word floated up from the body. Picking it up I received a notification in my head.

“Goblin Worker Data acquired. You can now summon Goblin Workers within your dungeon as defenders.”, the voice said.

With a sense of understanding and a feeling of excitement I scanned all the goblins in the rooms coming up with a few more defenders to work with. Goblin Warrior, Goblin Rogue, Goblin Crafter, Goblin Mage, Goblin Shaman, and Goblin Chief were the additions I added to my new creature pool. This was far more important to me than some coins used for trading. Adding even more excitement on top of what just happened. I heard a chime, or a ding go off in my head as we left the cave. Followed up by that same strange voice.

“You have cleared the Goblin Dungeon for the first time. Congratulations you received a new Skill. Skill received Creature Management. With this skill you can observe the status of any of your dungeon creatures from anywhere any time. You can also assign them tasks to complete from this menu eliminating the need to directly control your creatures. With this skill you can enhance your creatures in many different ways. From improving their combat prowess to augmenting their intellect and physical appearance garnering them the ability to discover new and useful ways to self-improve. You can also grant them skills and spells you possess, further enhancing your dungeon defenders.

Stopping in my tracks I listened to the prompt and attempted to use the skill. To my surprise a tan screen with black lettering popped up in front of me. Listing all the options I had available to me when managing my dungeon defenders. I also had the maximum number of defenders I could have at any given time. Currently I was at 0 out of 25. I could also see the level of my dungeon which was currently at level 1. The list of things I needed to do just kept growing. But oddly enough I was having so much fun I’d forgotten why I was doing all of this in the first place. Looking over my shoulder I could see Thorn doing something similar to what I was. He’d found a few spells in the cave that I thought would be useful for him and I’m assuming that he’d received a skill from the dungeon as well. He was currently squinting at thin air poking around then going blank in the face as if he was lost in thought. This continued for quite a while as neither of us spoke on our way back while we explored our new skills. It looked like I had a few menus for my defenders. Status, Research, Mutation, Magic, Trades, Skills, Levels, and Combat Path.

Thorn had received a skill called Ranger Evolution Tree and it allowed him to select new skills the more he engaged in combat. Each new skill had some sort of requirement attached to it. I foresaw him being very busy in the future. He told me that he was allowed to choose his first skill advancement for free and that he’d chosen. Deep wounds, which caused any arrow struck by him to penetrate deeper and cause the wound to bleed more. He also said that he could only use it on a target that was unaware of his location, giving him the opportunity to locate and target a vital spot.