The next day, I keep awakening the remaining goblins. There are only a few of them. I could actually do that yesterday, but I held back to keep some mana for emergencies. Like, fighting Rike’grak emergency.

The dungeon started to change as well. We moved the whole tribe to that location, hoping for a new exit to appear soon.

“How does being a priest work?" I ask the shaman.

“How does your power work?” He asks me mockingly.

I chuckle. There are quite a few goblins listening to us, including Asaru. Also, it’s not like I will be able to hide my powers in the middle of a battle. “I can heal and empower myself and others. I need to create a rune on their skin for it to work, though. Don’t be selfish. We need to have a good plan for the betterment of the tribe.”

The shaman scowls. “I can also heal and empower allies. I can negate the spells of hostile gods and cast my own that would kill the enlightened." He boasts, trying to show me he is better.

“I see. I wonder, do our buffs stack? We need to try it.” I motion a random goblin closer, then apply my rune to him and buff him. “Come on, it’s your turn.”

The shaman-priest reluctantly mumbles something under his nose that sounds like a prayer and points at the goblin, whose eyes open even more.

“Strong!” He exclaims.

“Which one gives you more strength?” I ask. The goblin points at me, and the shaman scowls.

“It’s a diminishing effect! You were first!”

I nod. “Maybe. We should try again. You first this time.” I wave my hand and stop buffing the goblin. The shaman chokes on his saliva. I smile. As I thought. He probably can only use his priestly skills and spells for a limited number of times, just like a human priest said. “So? Remove your buff and reapply it.”

“You have already removed yours. Just buff him again.” He smirks like he has one on me.

“Sure! No problem.” Unlike him, my buff just has a continuous, small expenditure of mana when active. There’s no problem for me to activate it for a moment. I do that, and I ask the goblin. “Is my buff the same as before?”

The goblin nods. I smirk. “Don’t worry. You have other abilities, and I will teach you from now on. We will make you a great shaman.” I tell him happily.

The shaman scowls. “Stupid! I’m great!” He walks away, kicking dirt.

“My offer still stands!” I shout after him.

A few hours pass. Our food storage is near empty. We need the exit soon, or our only option will be to either start killing ourselves for food or assault the old exit. Both options are bad.

“Female, come to my hut! Breeding time!” Rike’grak says this to Axi. I sigh. It's time to deal with it.

Axi frowns. “I’m married to Smag. I only have sex with him.”

“I’m the chieftain! Who dares?!”

“Idiot!” The shaman returns, smelling an occasion to strike me. “You are not a true goblin. All females belong to the chieftain.”

“Times changes. You were sleeping too long. Don’t worry, I will teach you, my young apprentice.” I mock the shaman. I don’t dare to directly mock Rike’grak, as he is too strong for me to take on. My powers are too concentrated on support. The shaman scowls again in anger, but Rike’grak doesn’t wait for us.

“I will show you the might of the chieftain!” He flexes before Axi and then starts walking towards her. I guess he just wants to rape her, thinking this will impress her.

Axi sighs again. “Very well. I’m stronger anyway, so since you don’t like reason, I will bash it into your scull. I challenge you.” She grabs her ax, which normally hangs on her waist, and walks toward the chieftain.

“Female? You can’t be a chieftain!” Rike’grak exclaims.

“Idiot! Those goblins are idiots!” The shaman adds.

Regardless, the chieftain can’t just ignore Axi. Frankly, Asaru is the strongest here, but she seems to not want the position. Actually, I take a look at her. Will she intervene? Hopefully not.

“Axi, don’t kill him. We will need him later.” I shout. Axi nods. The chieftain is not that weak. His weakest points are his skills. It seems the dungeon recreates monsters with their stats and magic in life, but not their complete knowledge. His fighting style is very primitive. Still, his physical stats are likely quite better than those of Axi. I observe how he moves his big hammer. It weighs a lot. I can always buff Axi, so that’s not a big problem, though. It’s not like anyone would notice the mana. I just need to do it conspicuously or from the start. I give her a small buff. Axi looks at me with a scowl. As I thought, she wants to deal with it on her own.

I sigh and stop buffing her. I’m not going to let her lose, but I will trust her for now. The last aspect of the fight is magic. Axi’s magical stats are way higher thanks to her reincarnations. The chieftain has a water mana core. I never seen him fight or someone with just water mana, so I don’t know what exactly to expect.

From what I know, this core only sometimes becomes real upon the death of the dungeon-spawned Rike’grak. It’s still a great prize for adventurers. Now, the core is completely real. I suppose I found another way to earn a lot of money.

Rike’grak layers water on his skin. It’s not going to stop an ax. Maybe lower blunt force trauma, but not a sharp edge. Maybe he just wants to defend himself from Axi’s fire. Too bad the ground here isn't real, or Axi could screw him by controlling dirt.

I take a look at Asaru. Is she a player? Or is she just lost? I can imagine what she thought about Rike’grak as a savior. A situation in which he becomes real is the best possible one for her. There’s just nothing else she could do. It doesn’t matter that he is actually weaker than her. If the golden scenario is not enough, then why continue struggling? People are not like that. They need hope. She must have assumed Rike’grak is enough, because there won’t be anything better.

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On the other hand, there is now my group here. Maybe poaching her will be easier than I thought. I need to remain vigilant. If Axi loses, at best she will be raped. At worst, we will both be killed in the conflict.

Axi and Rike’grak rush at each other. Hammer and ax meet, and Axi takes a few steps back. As I thought, he is stronger than Axi without buffs. Axi sends a fireball. He blocks it with a ball of water. The explosion destroys the ball, but most of the water remains. He moves it back to him. Axi probably has more mana, so she could kill him this way.

Axi rushes again, this time moving back before Rike’grak’s strike. The hammer is heavy, making it somehow slow and easy to predict, though only for a fight like this. For 1st tier creatures, his swings would be quite fast.

Axi uses her perk, and a small explosion of fire pushes her towards the chieftain. Before he can recover his stance, Axi chops at his torso. Water rushes to meet the strike. Axi hits, and imminently, fire explodes again, this time moving her back.

A tendril of water moves from Rike’grak skin to grab Axi, while the chieftain swings his hammer horizontally. Axi moves her mana shield forward. I feel the clash of wills as he tries to wrestle it down, and I contemplate helping Axi, but decide not to, since it looks like she can do it. The tendril strikes the shield. Water moves through, but not mana, making tendrils lose cohesion and fall to the ground.

Axi moves to the side and attempts to use the chieftain's swing to attack from the side, but he recovers in time and swings back. Axi backs away, not committing. I take a look at the wound. Not very deep and scorched by fire. Also, it’s on the shoulder. He blocked most of the strike. It should still weaken his swings.

The tribe looks quite smitten. I guess they didn’t expect it to go this way. The shaman is particularly distressed and, I would even say, fearful. I smirk. I get it. Without Rike’grak, his position will also fall. I need to observe him as well to make sure he won’t cheat. Or I can just cheat better.

The chieftain conjures water around his hammer. Is he going to help himself by swinging that way? It is a bit of a crude technique, as any water mage will be able to interrupt. I suppose that’s the reason he did that; there’s no other water mage here.

The next exchange is even faster. Both of them use mana to speed themselves up. Rike’grak is actually a bit faster now, but Axi has better fighting skills. Axi will probably win in a contest of endurance, but I don’t like it. Hobs are going to complain that we cheated or something. We don’t need a berly won victory. We need to show Rike’grak his place.

I start buffing Axi. Nobody is going to question absolute power. I start slowly to make sure the spike in strength is as unnoticeable as possible. Axi doesn’t give herself up and starts winning. I take a look at Asaru and shaman. If they were to start cheating, it would be now.

Asaru is somehow calm, but… I don’t know. Sad? At least it doesn’t seems like she is interfering. Not like I could tell. Both of our powers are too powerful for anyone else to notice. Shaman on the other hand, is doing something and mumbling under his nose. Ha! Maybe I should let him? My buff is stronger anyway…

No. It’s possible he didn’t show me everything. I shouldn't take a take a risk here. “What are you saying, Shaman? Are you cheating? This is a sacred duel!” I shout loudly. A few goblins look at him.

“Idiot! I’m just scratching my ear!” He indeed moves his hand to scratch it. Oh, well. It seems I have interrupted him. That’s enough.

Axi punches Rike’grak in the face, then chops his other shoulder. Bone breaks. He falls to his knees, unable to lift his hammer due to his wounds. He conjures all possible water for a last stand and pushes it onto Axi. She punches his head again, this time adding some fire mana and scorching insides of his scull. The former chieftain falls to the ground.

“Axi’s the new chieftain! All hail the chieftain!” I shout. At this point, I’m somehow experienced at this.

Axi raises her ax high, and goblins start to cheer. I walk forward. “Did you kill him?” I ask. Asaru moved forward and listens as well.

“I’m yet to get a notification. I held back in that last strike.” She says

Good. I start healing him. Asaru seems relived as well. It seems she won’t stop the strongest, but would rather have Rike’grak with us. I hardly blame her. I do that as well! Rike’grak is an orc. With my buff, he is going to be stronger than Axi right now. How could we miss him in a battle in which I may very well die?

Orcs have big bodies, making those relatively less serious wounds a sink of vitality. I spend half of my pool to restore him to usability. I hold back on completely healing him. A bit of pain will hopefully stop him from demanding a rematch, plus he can recover on his own. It’s not like we are prepared to fight the next instant.

Rike’grak wakes up an hour later. He is quite confused. Upon noticing Axi, he gets angry.

“You! How dare you challenge me?”

I laugh. “Did she hit you too hard? Did you already forget the result of the duel, Rike’grak? Now, call her chieftain.” I declare. He grits his teeth. “Unless you want to get a beating like an unobedient goblin?”

He raises abruptly, preparing to fight again. I sigh. He really needs a beating. Too bad I spent some time healing his body. I activate a clog I left in his right leg. He trips and hits the ground with his nose. I walk over and kick him. “Little goblin! Listen to your chieftain, or I will kick you more!”

“You are not the chieftain!”

I shrug. “I suppose. Chieftain?”

Axi holds back a laugh. “Go back to your hut, Rike’grak and recover before the big battle. You will have your chance to become stronger there by killing many humans.”

He stands up. The clog was small; I don’t want to cripple him. He is still angry, but seems to have learned his lesson. “Fine. And you… “ He tells me this, then looks back at Axi. I guess he doesn’t want to strike me around her. Hiding behind Axi is a bit humiliating, but I have done worse. It’s not my fault; my powers are weak in a direct fight! “You watch your back.” He walks away after that.

“I think that went well.” I smile.

“I don’t like that I needed help.”

I shrug. “There has to be a reason dungeon formed with him. He probably had a rare class. I mean, this version has the same class. It may be Epic or even Heroic. I would say you did well.” I continue after a short pause. “We need to discuss our strategy.”

“Strategy?”

“Yes. I didn’t bother at first, since we don’t really know what to expect. That’s a mistake. We just need to make plans for every possible outcome.” This is the way modern Earth armies work. I feel like a fool; I only figured it out now. I can’t just give up when planning is hard. I need to double down on it and plan every possibility. It’s a lot of work I don’t really want to do, but then I just remember I will die if I don’t give it my all. That’s very motivating.

“What are the outcomes?’ Axi asks.

“There are quite a few. Ideally, the new exit will appear outside the town’s walls. In this case, we can just leave. Maybe let Rike’grak act as our rear guard. He seems quite eager. Ultimately, our goal was, and I believe still is, grabbing Anastasia and getting out of here. There is no need to win a battle.”

Axi smiles. “That’s just like you. What about less desirable options?”

I sigh. “The second best option is that the exit opens in a hidden place, like a cellar. This will give us a chance to create a beachhead that is unchallenged. After that, we can either sneak out of the town or sic Rike’grak at it and escape in the chaos.” I explain.

Winning against the town is not that good to be with. I can’t conquer it. Humans will likely send a force to kill me fast. After all, a goblin horde like mine can multiply quickly and endanger nobles and other VIPs. This leaves looting, but I’m not sure it’s worth the risk. The town is poor; any knowledge is going to be basic, and I prefer willing women for breeding.

“The last possible option,” I continue, “is that humans will notice the new exit and form around it. At this point, it mostly about how much time they will have. I hope the old exit won’t close for now. Two choke points are better than one. This would give us the option to use one for distraction and attack the second one in full force, hopefully not against their full force.”

I slowly explain my battle plans. I roughly know humans’s capabilities and my own. I also have a lot of time to think about the strategy. Maybe I can actually win, even if they have an advantage in everything. Numbers, quality, terrain, fortifications.

No, I will probably not win the battle. But I just want to escape. This is feasible.

Half a day later, the dungeon finishes the new exit. It’s time to get out of here.