It’s extremely annoying, but I move to the front. Like it or not, I’m more likely to shrug off any ambushes. Axi is also in the front, but she is just like that. She can’t create her own soil armor, though, as the ground doesn’t qualify as earth. The next ambush goes way better. I tank two darts and move back, allowing the rest of the team to contribute. There are also regular traps, but looking around is enough to spot them. We just need to move slowly.

After half an hour, we see light. Should I say something? Our light is way dimmer, so they are unlikely to see it for now. I shrug. “Wear your masks.” We keep moving, and soon someone is shouting.

“Hail! Fire Slayers are coming! Who goes there?”

“We are new.”

“Noobs? Need help getting out of here?” Someone sneers.

“No thanks. We are doing fine. Did someone catch the witch already?”

“No luck.” Soon, we see each other. “Masks? Your party is a bit creepy."

“What creepy?! It’s called cool. Do you want to fight or something?” I shout to divert their attention.

“No need, noob.”

I shrug, and we try to pass each other. My hands are on my sword, just like everyone’s. Nobody attacks, though. Soon, the light from their torches grows dim in the distance.

“I actually expected to fight. Good for now.” We continue, and nobody attacks us for a while. I guess the previous team killed all the monsters. Do the dungeons create them all the time? It must be, right? We continue moving for a few hours, encountering goblins and traps. Our mana goes down steadily, so I decide to stay put for an hour. Axi dims her fire even more, but I tell her to extinguish it completely. I don’t know how dungeon goblins see in the dark, but her dimmed light was only enough for a meter or so. It's better to stay in complete darkness and don’t catch any attention.

We sit on the ground like this, but hobs start to fidget in my vitality mana sense. I can understand them. It’s a bit like staying in a sensory-deprivation chamber. I move closer to Axi and take her hand in my own. I don’t know if that reassures her, but it certainly makes it better for me! I don’t know how long we stay like this, but I would guess around an hour. My mana is at full, and Axi’s isn’t far behind. She creates a small flame, and we continue to move.

An hour later, we fought a few more ambushes. Some of them had a hobgoblin leading them. Not like that was a problem for Axi, but I’m reluctant to go too deep. A full hobgoblin party is going to be dangerous. Not that we are all going to die, but there’s a chance someone will die. I decide to move towards one of the already-mapped tunnels. To my displeasure, we don’t find it, even though our current tunnel should intersect with the old one.

Attitude? Are we beneath or above it? For all I know, the straight tunnel I drew as such is actually curvy. I stop mapping. We could still retrace our steps to leave the dungeon, but can we even buy a map? Won’t it be very expensive? More importantly, I don’t want more attention. In the worst case, we are going to find someone, and then we can just force them to lead us to the exit. The tunnels are full of people.

We continue moving, and I find something unusual. There are four sources of vitality mana behind a wall. Humans? They are a bit on the smaller side, but they could be humans.

“Hail! Are you on the other side? Can you hear me?” I shout.

The entities certainly heard me as they reacted to my voice. No response, though. “I know you can hear me.” I shout. “Come out!”

“You are being creepy.” Axi scolds me. I roll my eyes. They don’t respond. Can I dig into the wall? I don’t see their souls, so it’s a bit hard to tell how strong they are. Their vitality seems to be in the 2nd tier, but it’s also possible their race just has weak vitality.

“Let’s try it. Help me bring down this wall!" I strike it with my sword, but I only chip it. Axi’s ax does a lot more damage. I shrug and let her do her work. The four figures move away. A shame. Five minutes later, Axi makes a hole. A dart flies through it. There are goblins on the other side. Do the four figures go away because we attracted dungeon goblins through mining?

Should we follow them? Axi uses fire to kill a few goblins, and the rest back off. Taking down this wall is going to take some time. Especially under attack.

“Let’s move on,” I decide.

We keep moving for another half an hour, passing around another party of adventurers. Is Anastasia even alive? Given the dungeon melts all goblins… it wouldn’t be strange it could also melt corpses. I find is hard to believe Anastasia survived in here pursued by all those adventurers.

Hm? I turn around. Axi is walking alongside me, but behind me, there’s only one hob. “Where’s your friend?”

The hog shrugs and looks around.

“Hello? Come here.” I say. Nothing. Fuck. “We are going to hold hands.” I grab Axi’s hand on my right and hob’s on my left. We keep moving for some time. I regularly check if both Axi and hob are still there.

Another ambush. I move to the back and buff the rest of the team. A trap shots a bolt into Axi’s arm, but she just rips it out, and I throw some vitality her way.

Vitality mana! I check it quickly and notice three sources of vitality mana. I’m 90% sure they are the same guys as before. They move from around a corner, and they are three hobs. What?

“Hello! Can you help us?” I start in goblin language. I’m not sure how much they understand with my goblin language being half English, but they react to it. Don’t stop them from attacking us.

Axi gives me a look. “Those three are regular goblins, as regular as I can tell. Not dungeon monsters.” I explain. The ambush was pretty weak, so four dungeon goblins are already dead and the remaining four are losing. The three hobs attack, and Axi is forced to fight all of them. She is still winning. I draw my sword and move to attack one of the regular dungeon goblins.

“No need to fight! How about a nice conversation instead?” I can’t shout again, though, because a sharp gale of wind cuts my throat. I cough blood and fall to my knees. A mage? But I hadn’t seen anything! Air mana didn't move! I practically recreate my windpipe from vitality and shout.

“Watch out! Invisible enemy!”

Axi releases a cloud of flames. Something disturbs it on a corner. Axi concentrates her flames on that distortion, and it retreats. I shot my strongest isolating mana orb at it.

The distortion changes partially into water, extinguishing the flames. My orb hits and reveals a hobgoblin underneath. A female. Old one, going by wrinkles. She weaves her hand and disappears again; both her vitality mana and soul go invisible as well. I can see everyone's soul. Dungeon goblins’ souls are a bit different but still visible. I can’t spot hers. That invisibility magic is potent.

I dash to Axi. Her AoE spells are the best bet against an invisible enemy. “Everyone, to Axi!” The hob is locked in his fight against four goblins. All three visible hobgoblins have mana shields, so I’m not very useful offensively.

“I don’t have infinite mana!” Axi still spreads her flames around, and avoids burning me. I strike at one of the enemy hobs shields with an isolating orb and then my Will. His shield didn’t go down completely, but Axi used the chance to burn him a bit.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Wait! Back off!” Someone shouts, and I take a look. It’s the female hobgoblin. Three hobs back a bit.

“Don’t attack! Let’s talk.” I say it hastily. Axi and my hob listen, but four goblins are still attacking.

“Can you do something about them?” I ask enemy leader.

“I don’t control them.”

“Can I get rid of them?” It’s unreasonable for us to just take hits!

“Go ahead.” Three hobs position themselves around the woman.

“Watch her!” I tell Axi and buff myself. I’m not a physical fighter, but against me, regular goblins have no chance. We kill all four of them in a few seconds. Time to chat with the hobgobliness.

You have killed 2 1st tier dungeon monsters. You have earned 60 Experience Points.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Smag. This is Axi.” Am I doing it right? I’m not good at social stuff.

“Hello!” Axi chippers and waves.

“You have names?”

“Yeah? Don’t you have one?”

“No. The system gave me no name.”

“Oh. Well… Neither gave us names. We just named ourselves.”

Her eyebrows tighten. “Like humans.”

“I suppose? It’s not like I want to accuse you, but your magic resembles human magic a lot more. Unless the water was an artifact?”

"Who are you?" She asks.

“Hadn’t we already introduced ourselves?” I’m confused.

“You told me your names. You are not humans. Elves?”

“We are goblins. Just like you. At least it seems so.”

“Indeed. You look like us, but I never met a goblin from outside this place, and you are not from here. I’m seeing the three of you for the first time.”

I frown. What should I tell her? “Well… We are definitely from the outside. This means you are from here, right?”

“There are only humans outside.”

“Did you ever go outside? The entrance is in the human tribe, so it may seem so, but there are lots of places elsewhere. Lots of goblins.”

“Why did you come to this goblin killing place? Why not stay there?”

“We are looking for someone. A human female. This tall. Bronze heir. We are not interested in fighting you or your tribesmen.”

She frowns. “Human? Why seek humans? Do you want to kill her?”

“No, she was quite pitiful, and Axi decided to adopt her into our tribe. Humans captured her, so we are seeking her to bring her back.” Axi nods.

She ponders for a moment. “Come with me.”

“Why?”

“I will lead you to her.”

“You know where she is!” Axi shouts.

“That’s what I said.”

“Chief, those goblins are strange. Strange speaking.” One of her hobs says. Oh. They must be older than mine.

“I know. Come. Or not.”

“We will.” Axi decided for us. I sigh.

“Can I ask about your magic? I never saw it.”

“You first.” She replies dismissively.

I smile. “No problem! I have a Vitality Core and vitality mana, It can control vitality, which I believe is the same as the one on the status screen. It allows me to heal people or temporarily make them stronger.” She already saw how I healed my throat. Frankly, she is also stronger than us. Her magic is quite frightening. Finding a weakness is a priority if I want to fight her. I really don’t, but you never know.

She gives me a look. “What about you?”

Axi answers and gives a small demonstration. “Fire. I can control fire. I know, it’s not very impressive.” She shrugs a bit.

“Fake mana. I control fake mana.” The woman tells us reluctantly.

Fake? I frown. That’s at least three-merged mana. Probably four-merged, if not five. Where did she get the treasure?

“Follow me.” She moves forward and soon stops before a wall. Just a regular part of the wall. She points her finger and pokes it, and the wall moves, showing a hidden passage.

“What’s that?”

“Goblin tunnel. Can sneak around.”

“Can I learn that? How do you open a passage?”

“Only our tribe can.” She explains.

I frown. Could she be leading us into a trap? “So you spend your entire life here. What can you tell me about the dungeon? It’s the first one I ever entered.”

“Are there more goblin-killing places?”

“Maybe. Probably. I don’t know. It’s the first one I entered. I heard there are more places like this, but not all should have goblins inside.”

She doesn’t say anything. Damn! She is leading me! I want her to answer questions, but ultimately it’s me who is answering her!

“So? The dungeon? How can goblins here see in absolute darkness? My tribe can’t.”

“It’s the potion that our shaman is making.”

“Interesting. I dabbled a bit, but my alchemy is rather rubbish. Could he teach me?” I prod her. Come on. Start a normal conversation.

“He won’t. He is still trapped in the past.”

“Past?”

“You asked what this place is. I don’t know. I guess. Past, trapped in the present. A goblin killing place.”

Interesting. Time shanganians? If so, probably at a very limited level. Time magic should be six-merged mana, if it exists at all.

“And you are not from the past. How?”

“I don’t know. Sometimes someone survive long ago, and they are no longer fake but real.”

Dungeon break. That’s what I learned from the humans. If you don’t kill monsters regularly, they can leave the dungeon. Interesting.

“Humans know about it too, but they call it dungeon break. They believe they need to kill monsters inside regularly.”

She doesn’t respond to it, but I feel she thinks about it. Just before my second attempt to keep the conversation going, she speaks. “Are you not sad that your tribesmen died?”

The one that mysteriously disappeared? “A bit. Did you kill him?”

She ponders the answer for a moment. “Yes. I thought you were humans who discovered our hidden tunnels. I’m sorry.”

I nod. “I’m sad, but goblins are always dying. If you were to kill Axi I would make sure you were dead. Otherwise, I can’t avenge every goblin.” I’m not sure if she can tell lies, so I try to keep telling the truth and be sincere about it. Does her sense of fake mana extend to lies?

I’m indeed a bit sad because that decreased the combat power of my group. That means I have a higher chance of dying.

“I see… So even on the outside, goblins keep dying.”

"Not like that.” Axi starts. “Goblins die, but humans die as well. I killed a lot of monsters and some humans to evolve.” The female doesn’t respond to that, but Axi continues. “Why won’t you get out of here with us? Smag is great at sex. You won’t regret it.”

Damn it, Axi! This one is a granny! I would love to add her to my tribe, but please don’t prostitute me for it!

“I’m old. I don’t have long to live. Those children of mine are the last ones. I can't have more of them.” She shakes her head.

“No problem!” I smile. “I can give you a new body with my magic. You will lose all your physical stats and become a regular goblin again, but you will keep all your skills and your magic. And you will be young again.”

She looks at me sharply. “Truly?”

“Yeah! He can do it.” Axi nods. The hobgobliness don’t say anything more, and I let her think. We march for ten minutes until we leave the secret tunnel. There’s a light ahead.

“Humans. Help me kill them.”

I frown. I would rather just avoid them, but it will be hard to mask four hobgoblins. Unless…

“Can’t you use your fake mana to disguise yourself?”

“I can. I won’t. You told me you were my friend. Proof it.”

So that’s how it is. “Strategy? Do we have to kill them ourselves, or are you going to help us?”

“I will help.”

“Good! How about this?" I explain to her my plan, and she nods. It’s a bit of a dangerous plan, but it actually makes it hard for her to betray us. I didn’t think she would agree, but it’s even better that way.

We lower our masks and move forward. The hobgobliness goes invisible, and the three remaining hobs stay behind.

“Hail! Three Swords coming this way.” I shout. I gave a fake name.

“Hail! Silver Crawlers coming!” After a minute, we see each other. “We never saw your group. What’s with the masks?”

“We are new to the town. Plague. I didn't see the witch.”

“Neither did we.”

We move on our right side, and the five of them are on the other side of the corridor. Just as we are about to pass each other completely, one of them falls down with his throat cut.

“What the…?” One of them swings his blade, and Axi parries.

“Wait! That wasn’t us!” I shout desperately.

“Then who?” Their leader rolls the guy over and checks on him. Unless they have a spare potion, this guy is dead. They are wary and prepared to fight, but it seems they are not quite ready to go all out.

“Goblins. They must be close. They want to turn us against each other!” I look around frantically, giving a show. Our hob doesn’t know what to do and still points his sword at the team. Right. He can’t speak the language.

Three hobs come out from behind the human party. “Ambush! Look behind!” I shout. Their leader scowls. I kind of expected he was going to call me on it, but one of them actually looks back. Damn. That’s nice cooperation. I wish my party was so good!

“Three hobs!”

“We will help you!” I shout and come closer. Axi swings her ax, and I swing my sword. My sword is deflected, but one of them dies to Axi's swing. Their leader attacks me, and I desperately block. Even with enhanced stats, he is still way stronger. My hands go numb, and I nearly drop my sword. Axi comes around and engages him. Three hobs attack from the other side. The hobgobliness doesn’t help, but it’s five to three, with me staying in the back and occasionally throwing Mana Orbs to distract, plus healing injured hobs.

I give Axi signal through my Lieutenants perk. She shoots a fireball at one of the remaining humans. He attempts to shield himself, but I disrupt and throw a Mana Orb at him. Axi disrupts his attempts as well. Unable to create a shield at a distance, he creates one close to his body. The Fireball strikes and burns his skin. Two hobs use this chance, and their weapons bite in.

“Run!” Their leader shouts to his last teammate. Axi moves to intercept, but their leader raises his finger, and a powerful gale throws everyone a step back. Axi snorts and throws her ax at the lesser warrior. He blocks with his shield, but the ax bursts with flames. Hobs surround him. The leader shakes his head and tries to escape on his own. Fuck! I don’t want anyone to know I’m here or about my powers. Suddenly, he stops and then falls to the ground. The hobgobliness appears above his corpse.

“Very well. Now, I can trust you.”