“Hadn’t you trusted us before?”

“I can't be sure. I still don’t trust you fully. I’m willing to try, though.” She says.

“Ok.” I shrug. “So, where is Anastasia? The human we are looking for.”

“Follow me.” She starts walking. “I didn’t notice her; rather, I noticed all the humans. They were looking for someone. I was interested, so I found her and followed. Your friend is not the strongest human around. At one point, two groups of humans found her. Rather than kill her, they decided to fight for the right to catch her. I killed the victor and kidnapped your human. After that, I used her a few times to lure and even turn humans against each other. It doesn’t work each time, though. You are lucky. I was planning to kill her soon.”

“Clever. Why kill all humans? You don’t get experience when they kill each other.”

She stays silent for a while. “It’s not about Experience Points, though they are important as well. You should know how much stronger you can become after evolving, but that’s not the reason. Don’t you understand this?”

“Not really?” I hedge. “I understand killing for Experience, but I don't know your reasons otherwise.”

“I see. Maybe the surface is better than I thought. Don’t worry. You will understand in time.”

Now, that’s ominous. We walk for ten minutes until the hobgobliness opens a hidden passage. Tied up Anastasia lies on the ground there. She raises her head. “Axi? Smag? You came for me. Or is this a dream?” Axi rushes forward and picks her up from the ground. She hugs her. Anastasia starts crying. “I’m sorry! I thought you had left me! I’m sorry! I shouldn't doubt you!”

I smile. Very heartwarming. I decide not to tell her how I thought she betrayed us. Or that I wanted her to die. Or that I didn’t want to come here. Instead, I go behind her and cut her bindings. Anastasia hugs Axi back.

The hobgobliness goes inside as well and looks at the scene with a forlorn expression. Anastasia ends her hug and looks back at me, her face marred by tears. I smile, hopefully amicably. She comes closer for a hug, and I give it back. It’s a bit awkward. “I feared the worst. It’s good that you are alive.”

She nods. “Thank you. Sorry.”

“What for?”

She smiles. “I may have told some things to people outside."

“I know. They think I’m super powerful.” I smile, but inside, I calculate. Why is she sorry about it? Didn’t she tell them that so humans wouldn’t pursue us? I shake my head. Let’s not create drama right now.

“Well, I hope the powerful hobgoblin has a way to get us all out of here.” She says it playfully, while also gauging my reaction.

I shrug. “We sneaked in dressed like humans. We can leave the same way!”

Hobgobliness frowns. I smile. “You can come with us as well.” I tell her.

She ponders it for a while. “I will accompany you to the entrance, but I won’t leave the dungeon.”

“Why? Don’t you want to leave this cursed goblin killing place?”

“I do. As to why… you will find out yourself.” She says mysteriously. I frown. Whatever. We still need to leave.

“Anastasia, do you have any weapons?”

She shakes her head, but hobgobliness interjects. “I have her weapons nearby. Come here.” She leads us to another hidden tunnel, and Anastasia arms herself with a short sword, a bow, and a quiver.

“Let’s go.” We all nod, and hobgobliness takes charge. I’m wary of deception; she seems to be a master of such, but I actually need some help to find the exit. This really is a maze. We march for several minutes, taking various hidden passages frequently. There’s no ambush and no betrayal.

“The exit is at the end of that tunnel. I will stay here if you change your mind.” She says.

“Sure.” I nod. I’m not planning to stay. There's no point in arguing that, though.

The four of us march forward, and soon we spot the familiar teem guarding the entrance.

“It’s you. Any luck?” Their leader snickers. “Wait. Wasn't that guy there shorter before?” He point at Anastasia.

I frown. “Are you hitting on my friend?”

Another guy lightly elbows their leader. “Whatever.” He waves his hand dismissively. I don’t linger, and I lead our group out. The entrance is still there. I cross it without trouble, and we are out. That was easy.

We are still in a reinforced cell. I frown. “We are out. Can you let us out?” I shout.

“Hm? First timers?”

“Yeah.” I nod, a bit nervously.

“It’s the procedure. The priest is going to consecrate the ground here using his skills. We need to make sure no monster manages to escape. Some of them are quite cunning.”

Shit. “Back.” I whisper. We rush back into the dungeon.

The team there gives us a look. “Sorry. We forgot something.” I smile and try to walk back into the dungeon, my party following me.

“The witch! The tall one must be the witch!” Someone shouts.

I activate buff on everyone. Axi and hobgoblin rush forward, while I and Anastasia stay in the back. We are fumbling to reach for our weapons, while mages conjure elements.

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The enemy's mage conjures sand, then blasts it with wind. I notice two distinct mana types: sand and probably wind mana. It’s definitely not air mana.

This makes it hard to see. Anastasia shoots an arrow, but winds change its direction. After another second, I can’t see anything. Damn it! How am I going to fight like this? I look at Anastasia, and we both nod our heads in silent understanding. We move forward.

My Mana Sense gives me some vague direction of where vitality mana is, but it’s a blur. An arrow strikes Anastasia’s chest. I rip it out and apply vitality. She coughs up blood in the meantime. The mage conjures chaos mana and throws it around. I keep a shield around my body, but wind and sand mana make it hard to shield someone else. It keeps destabilizing my work. How do we kill them?

How do we escape? We can’t stay here forever!

Suddenly, everything stops. I look at the mage's location and find hobgobliness removing daggers from the mage’s and the archer’s necks. Both Axi and hobgoblin are wounded, their eyes closed. The mage must have avoided hitting his teammates while making it hard for my own party.

Three front-line fighters turn around to find the bodies of their teammates falling to the ground and no sign of the attacker. I heal my companions and reinforce them. Anastasia shoots the bow again.

Axi manages to strike a shoulder in a few seconds, and the fight snowballs from here.

“To the entrance!” One of them shouts.

“Run!” I shout in response. There is no point in fighting them.

Hobgoblinness shows herself. "It seems you decided to stay. Follow me.” I want to hit her smug smile, but I grit my teeth and follow her instead.

We move for five minutes until we enter a hidden corridor. There are some blankets on the ground and tools lying around. It seems this is one of their resting places. It's nice that she trusted us enough to bring us here. Unless she simply thinks we are no threat.

“You can rest here. It’s a safe place.” She says this and sits down. Damn. She is plying us! Seizing an initiative and forcing us to beg her for a solution! I don’t want to. It’s just… I feel in a corner of my mind that I may not have an alternative.

“Is there another exit from the dungeon?” Anastasia asks. Come on! Read the mood! We need to show we are collected and calm! Obviously, I’m not going to berate her. I will at least keep the image that we are united!

“No. You can’t make another as well. I tried.” She sighs. “You will dig into another tunnel. The dungeon normally shifts slowly, but if someone decides to rearrange it, it will fight. You will find the directions are no longer as they should be, while dungeon monsters will come to you as humans to the light.”

So that option is gone. I sigh. Since she is civil about giving us information and isn’t making demands, I may as well bite. I suppose I’m too curious.

“What do you eat?” This is the most pressing question. I had found, while commanding the tribe, that supplies are nearly the most important.

“Humans can always be eaten.” Great. This is what I feared. “Besides that, there are some plants in the village that can become real. It’s not much, though.”

“Can you lead us there?”

“I can, but this isn’t what you want. Humans killed Rike’grak and are camping there.”

“Rike’grak?” Axi asks.

“He’s the chieftain of dungeon’s tribe. The orc.”

That complicates things. I suppose we don’t lack adventurers in the dungeon. Killing them is going to be a problem. The fight just ten minutes ago showed that. There are many mana types, and a strange one can easily take us off guard. Not to mention, there should be some platinum-ranked adventurers. Killing them on our own is going to be hard—nearly impossible.

“I’m guessing you tried to leave the dungeon before. Did you fail?”

She nods. “I once stayed many days around the entrance, hoping humans would slip and let me leave. I could then kill priests and let others out. Strangely, priests never failed to cast their spells before releasing humans.“

I frown. “Can you just leave while invisible after they unlock the door?” This seems like an obvious loophole.

“No. They hold the spell until the doors are locked. I tried once to sneak past it, but it kept hurting me. They immediately noticed something was wrong and prepared to fight while blocking the exit.”

I guess she escaped back to the dungeon. “Do you have a plan at least? We would love to assist you.” I smile. Hopefully, this one looks friendly. I should have practiced before a mirror.

She smiles in response. “I do, but I’m not sure if it’s possible.”

“Tell us.”

“Since sneaking by is impossible, I need brute force. My plan is to awaken all possible goblins and hobgoblins to create an army, and then storm the entrance. Shaman of the tribe is a priest of a Dark God. He will be able to cancel the spells of human priests.”

“Dark God? That’s a god for monsters like us, right?” Axi asks. I frown. I don’t like relying on something like a god. It seems the hobgobliness also doesn’t like that, as her face suddenly becomes sadder. “Can we pray to that God for help?”

“There’s no point.” She speaks about God in a way I could have mistaken for being about her ex. “I tried. Many times. I killed in his name. I offered sacrifices, both from my blood and the blood of my enemies. I suppose he doesn’t care about little monsters like us. Or maybe he can’t help. I don’t know.” Whatever it is, she lost hope for that route. “But a priest of Invitar should be enough to cancel that cursed spell.”

“Invitar? I never heard of him.” Frankly, I never heard a name of a Dark God. I know a few Bright Gods from Anastasia, though.

“He is a god of Conquest, Plunder and Looting. I don’t know anything else about him.”

“Can we name you?” Axi suddenly asks. “It’s strange you don’t have a name. It’s hard to think about you as a nameless hobgoblin.”

The hobgobliness looks startled. Then she frowns, and I think she is a bit unconformable with the idea. “I don’t mind, I suppose.” She shrugs at the end.

“Great! Let me think..."

“Two of us have names starting with ‘a’. How about… Asaru? That would fit the theme.” Anastasia says.

“Buuu! I wanted to name her.” Axi complains.

“The name feels… sharp.” Asaru says. “I will be Asaru from now on.”

“How do we awaken dungeon monsters?” I ask.

“We wait. We protect them. As long as nobody kills them, they will become alive.”

I frown. “How long?” The girls are still in the Roheb. Probably. We were meant to leave the dungeon in the few days at the longest. Would guards track us to them? I shrug. They have money. They can take care of themselves. I can’t help them. It’s a bit of a waste, but they were ultimately hired. Even in the worst-case scenario, it’s not that big of a loss.

“Weeks. Months. Depends. I don’t have that much time, so I ask you to give me a new body.”

Months? I don’t like it. Months of hunting humans just to eat something? Maybe I will be able to speed it up via vitality mana. Provide a seed or something like that. I will need to experiment.

“No problem.” I start. “It’s just a bit strange to me. You are old and strong. Why didn’t you evolve into an orc?”

“Hidden tunnels are too narrow. It would make it hard for me to move through them.”

“But that should make you young again. At least by orc standards.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“Don’t you know? Higher tiers have a longer lifespan.” I explain. “I never confirmed it, actually, but it should be true in general.”

“Oh. I see. I didn’t know. Still, the option to start in a new body with old skills and mental stats is better.”

I nod. “You should still evolve before that. Pick an option that gives a lot of mental stats or a nice skill.” I shrug. “You understand.”

“I do.”

Her eyes glaze, and she should pick an option soon. I look around. A small room, surrounded by hostile monsters and human adventurers with a mission to kill me.

It hits me. Just right now. I feel the cold terror of this place. Leaving won’t be easy, and it will take at least a few weeks. I’m trapped in a goblin killing place.