My slaves of three grew into eleven. Patrols of three goblins wandered all over the place, and they were easy to get to join our crew. I was a heck of a lot more intimidating with goblins behind me, and with the aid of [Influence] I managed to convince most of them to join me. The rest found a couple of spears in their gut.

I made them a simple offer. Join me or die. You could say that I forced them, but I like to think of it as using strong suggestion, and at the end of the day, they were much better suited as my slaves than anything else.

Fortunately they seemed to take the shift with glee. It made me wonder if this type of stuff was prevalent within goblin society. It was only right that the strong be the leaders, maybe these simple creature’s had at least understood that much.

“That’s all, sir,” One of the goblins could speak my language. That useful skill made him my second in-command.

“What do you mean that’s all?” I spat.

“The rest of the goblins are in the base with our past leader.”

“How many are we talking about?”

“About twenty goblins plus our past leader Urchuk, but I have no doubts that I you would best him.”

“Of course I’ll best him. Those who do not submit to the great overlord will find themselves killed,” I said. “Now then, lead me to your camp.”

We traveled through the forest until the opening of a cave revealed itself. In front of the cave the goblins had lit a couple of fires, and were dancing around them. This lack of discipline disgusted me, but my attention was mainly put at the cave.

This could be a mine opening.

If it was so, then, I’d hit jackpot. I had no doubts that it would lead into the same cave system as the one under the town. Still, It would give us our own entrance. It would be much easier to hide away from the rest of the miners.

They have children too.

To the side of the camp two cages holding two children laid. They looked particularly frail and weak, covered in bruises. It seemed that the goblins had starved them and also hit them for fun. It was absolutely perfect!

How should I mutate them?

Human children were particularly susceptible to demonic magic, which was mainly good at mutating bodies into more dangerous bodies. A master like me would be able to turn those two children into killing machines in no time.

I walked into the camp, gaining the odd eye of many of the goblins there. I think they didn’t immediately charge at me because of the elven goblins marching behind me. One of the goblins in the camp rushed into the cave, and a little bit later, a large goblin who was double my size, with a thick head, and a jaw that shot out left the entrance of the cave. He eyed me and screamed something in goblin.

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“Translator.” I had decided to name the goblin who was capable of translating into Translator. I thought that it was fitting.

“He is saying, “you!” your lordship” he said.

“Tell the fool that he either submits to me as his leader, or that he will die.”

The large goblin hadn’t stopped marching towards me even as I spoke to my translator. He had no respect for the order of these things. He didn’t even stop as Translator gave him my message. When he stood right in front of me, his stinking breath wet against my face, only then did he stop.

I looked up at him, being able to sense his immense bloodlust through [Lesser Demonic Instincts]. Taking a combat position, and not letting him get close to me, would have been clever. The problem with that course of action was that I’d be treating him as a threat, and showing him some respect. That was inexcusable.

The fat goblin spoke.

“He says that he will skin you,” Translator said. “And force you to eat your balls.”

“That threat was… mediocre.”

Translator told the fat goblin what I’d said and his face instantly shot red. To me it seemed that he began listing a bunch of threats, doing so with enough ferocity that spit flew at me

“He says he’ll rip your fingernails one by one.”

“Clearly, why do it at the same time?”

“He says he’ll enjoy it.”

“Who wouldn’t?”

“He says that he will keep you awake through it all.”

“Of course!” I said and full of irritation, slammed my pickaxe into his temple. It didn’t penetrate his skull, but it did make him lose his balance and fall backwards. The next strike was in between the legs. This was went pretty deep in.

“Let me teach you something about threats,” I said. “They’re much more scary.” I couldn’t help but smile. It spread from ear to ear, revealing my spiky teeth. “When you tell them one at a time.”

I must have traumatized every goblin there because when I finished with their past leader everybody was down on the floor, shaking, and hoping for my mercy. I didn’t do anything special to him. Torture was a standard demon past-time. The trick to getting good at it was to experience it.

The big guy would have been a useful minion. His size would have helped him in mining but sadly he’d been transformed into a mess of blood, flesh, and pain. He laid on the floor twitching, and even if I healed him I doubted he’d do me any good. I thought about ending him, but thought against it. Why would I?

“Sir,” Translator said. “The goblins are wondering what the tribe name is?”

“What? This isn’t a tribe, this is a mining faction. Make sure to tell them that, and its name will be… Hellmine. See there’s actually two meanings to it. First, it’s the fact that we’re going to hell, and the second is that hell is mine. I don’t know why I’m explaining it to a moron, but there you go.”

“Would you like me to translate the last part?”

“Why not?” I said, and walked towards the children. They eyed me with fear.