After clearing the outside area, killing twelve more of the magical beasts, Mud proceeded into the cave. Within, the level of filth was even greater. A gooey brown slime covered the floor, and the smoke of poorly ventilated fires clung to the roof of the cave. Continuing to slaughter sleeping forms, Mud advanced deeper. After killing five more Goblins, the golem once again increased its Soul Refinement.

[Master Butler ® Class increased to Level 3]

By now, the returns were pitifully small. Each Goblin only granted four experience. Proceeding down the surprisingly deep tunnel, a side passage became apparent. Turning to check the contents, Mud was surprised to find it to contain three humans. They all appeared heavily wounded, although two appeared to still be alive judging by their regular breathing. Proceeding into the room, Mud killed the seven goblins around the humans. Searching their ragged clothes, Mud found a few coins, which it took into its body. Then, the golem left and returned to its hunting.

Mud proceeded further into the narrowing tunnel. After a sharp bend, the tunnel opened into a wide amphitheater, natural light filtering in from a crack in the roof. Within, Mud witnessed something it had not seen once so far; an awake enemy.

While it resembled a Goblin, the creature was much larger and more muscular. Were it not for its green skin, the beast could easily be confused for a rather ugly and short human. On its head it wore a metal helmet, on its torso chainmail; likely stolen from a captured human. On its side hung an unsheathed shortsword, merely tied to its armor with a rope.

The Goblin General was violently shaking and slapping a nearby sleeping Goblin. When the target of its frustration refused to wake, it moved over to another and began shaking it as well. Just as it prepared to slap the hapless sleeping form, the General was suddenly bent in two and rocketed backward, slamming into a nearby wall with a resounding crash. Chunks of rock flew in all directions, but a moment later the general was back on his feet, brandishing its shortsword and looking around for its enemy.

Taking full advantage of its limited intellect, the General decided to first examine the direction the strike had seemed to come from. Showing no concern for its sleeping kin, the Goblin stomped heavily on top of their sleeping forms.

Arriving at the entrance to the cave from the side, the General crouched low. With a sudden explosion of movement, it leaped in front of the entrance and swung its sword into the gap with a roar.

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Finding no enemy there, the Goblin stepped back and looked around, scratching its warty green head. Unbeknownst to the General, its foe was directly above it, its brown skin blending perfectly with the stone walls of the cave.

[Stealth Skill increased to level 6]

Silently, Mud released its grip from the cave roof. In the instant before it landed on the Goblin General, the golem released the Force Bolt it had charged, slamming the goblin into the cave floor. Following the Bolt, Mud landed heavily on the beasts back, wrapping its tentacles around it. Unfortunately, the dagger was unable to penetrate the chainmail the beast was wearing, and did no damage. Wasting no time, Mud manipulated its form to trap the General in a cocoon of Mud.

The General would not go down so easily, however. Showing surprising tenacity despite its multiple bleeding wounds and labored breathing, it once again returned to its feet. Dropping its sword, the Goblin began grabbing handfuls of Mud's flesh and tearing them off.

[Maximum hp reduced by 1]

Realizing too late what the General was doing, the golem was wracked with pain and self-loathing at failing The Master. As the general reached for another handful, Mud focused on making the section it reached for as dense as stone. The increased strength gave the general pause, but it soon redoubled its efforts to wrench the offending mass free.

Wanting to end the fight as quickly as possible, Mud transferred the dagger from its torso into the tip of a mud tentacle. Whipping the blade around, it attempted to slice the magical beast's neck as it had done to so many sleeping forms already. As the blade flew towards the beasts undefended neck, its right arm suddenly stopped pulling at the rock-like mud and snatched the tentacle mid-swing. Grinning with crooked teeth, the general tightened its grip suddenly, causing the end of the tentacle to fall to the cave floor.

[Maximum hp reduced by 1]

Deprived of its weapon, Mud quickly formulated a new plan to kill the monster. First, Mud released a point-blank force bolt directly into the monster's torso, causing it to stumble. While it was distracted, Mud rapidly slithered up the Generals back, rapidly encasing its entire head. The Goblin General began clawing away the offending material in a panic.

[Maximum hp reduced by 1]

It was too late. Once in position, the golem hardened its entire outside layer into a stonelike consistency, and waited. Although the Goblin was able to find its discarded sword and strike at Mud repeatedly, the dull and rusted blade did no damage against the stonelike exterior. After a short time, the monster finally suffocated and collapsed to the floor. Wary of the lack of Experience, Mud carefully extended a tentacle to snatch its dagger, and slit the beast's throat. Its skin was thick, and Mud was surprised at the difficulty it experienced reaching its carotid artery. Eventually, its efforts bore fruit and the cave floor was stained red with the Goblin Generals blood.

[Experience Gained: 40]

The fight had proven much more difficult than Mud had expected. The rewards, however were great.

After reabsorbing its lost mass, Mud returned to its original task. After killing eight more Goblins, it gained enough Experience for another level.

[Master Butler ® Class increased to Level 4]

Killing the remaining thirty-six goblins, it, unfortunately, did not gain enough for a level, receiving only two Experience from each.

Although all the Goblins were now dead, its work was not yet done here. Over the next half-hour, Mud removed the proof of subjugation, the Goblins left ear, from each corpse. Part-way through the labor, the humans woke up.