Alex took a deep breath running one final check of her gear before looking over at the sister to make sure she was ready, seeing her nervously staring at the entrance. Alex would be performing the role of a tank with minimum range and melee offensive ability. She had invested almost all of her skills into utility. Trap detection, trap disarming, magic detection, life sense, heightened hearing, and lock picking, being the majority of her skills. Shield bash, and swordsmanship, and though she didn't really need the skill to wield the sword anymore it did help make her strikes hit stronger. Lastly was Fireball, though it was only the small ball of flame version. As Fireball, had at least half a dozen variants and dozens of modifiers. Enough that you had to have a handful of these skills to even start to figure out the spell formula. At the moment could only afford the cheapest of spells not helped by the fact she had next to no magic in her current loadout and what little she did was split between that spell and shield wall. A spell that would allow her shield to produce a force field to protect the entire party it literally cost her half her mana pool to use it once but with the sister's class she could more than make up for Alex's lack of damage even with the limited healing. She could keep her going no matter what regardless came what may the two were more than ready to meet any foe they happened upon. The first 20 minutes were odd, to say the least something didn't seem right. Alex was sure they must have passed the first ring by now, yet they were still going in a straight line and she swore there were no straight tunnels this long last time she was here.
“Hey keep calm and all, but something's off we should have met the first split already so something isn't right and even if that wasn't the case we should have at least encountered the first goblin sentry by now."
“Maybe they're out?” the sister said hopefully.
“No, even if they were out raiding or foraging there would still be guards, either they're not here anymore or something is very wrong we should double back while we still can and report to the Guild. My reputation is good enough with the guild they won't think I'm crying wolf or anything and we already have a claim on this mission. So, if they up the severity and get another party they have to work with us better safe than sorry.” Alex said nervously, moving to stand next to Marinette, her eyes flicking between both ends of the tunnel.
“Alright if you think that's for the best.” Marinette said as she started to lead them back to the entrance, they didn't make it more than 10 feet before two hidden passageways opened up in front of them presumably connecting to the outer ring.
“Oh damn it I knew we went too far in. Run for it I'll buy you some time before switching to something a bit faster and catch up.” Alex ordered charging the closest goblin with her sword. Swordsmanship proved its worth even if it was a low level version as the goblin was ridiculously skilled actually knowing how to use its own sword matching her and pairing her first swing something that shouldn't have been possible unless something was very very wrong.
“What tha? Alert the Guild I don't know why the ones in the raids were so weak but the ones in here actually know how to fight. That means they got to have something a lot more powerful than just a basic goblin leading them.” Alex ordered just barely able to block a barrage of Archer fire with her shield.
“What!? Are aren't we going together?” The sister asked turning around to try and help her.
“Fraid not now catch.” Alex shouted, tossing her a primed way stone.
Way stones, are emergency use crystals that would teleport them back to a preprogrammed set of coordinates before breaking. In the case of the cheap 1 time use stones sold at the Guild that would be the Guildhall. Unfortunately, that was her only way stone she would have used it on herself if it could carry more than one person and was not cheap even the cheapest stones were 100 silver or 1 gold. She knew the sister didn't have one of her own, but the sister wasn't fast enough to get away If she tried. The goblins were now streaming out of both doorways heck she wasn't even sure she could get away anymore. She disengaged from the swordsmen reclassing all of her skills into rogue and assassin. There were too many in front of her, so she had to get creative.
“Catch me if you can assholes.” She shouted before disappearing into the dark tunnels ahead unfortunately this didn't work like she had hoped. She barely made it to the second ring planning to double back to the first when she ran into something she couldn't sneak by a goblin elder sage. Even with almost all her points pumped into stealth he still saw right through her attempt. With the goblin horde behind her and a goblin elder sage in front of her, she did the smartest thing she could and surrendered hoping to find an opportunity to sneak off. or having forbid last long enough for the emergency extermination squad from the Guild to save her. The goblins wasted no time they took her weapons her gear and promptly stripped her naked like the fucking perverts that they were.
She was just happy they hadn't decided to push her down and try and take her then and there. It was only thanks to the orders of the elder to take her to the prison. Thankfully that saved her that little horror show. She would play along for now if the prison was uninhabited. When they did try and take advantage of her she'd make her escape if it wasn't inhabited, she'd have to get a little bit more creative. Either way she needed to find a dark place to hide till this all blew over unfortunately for her they threw her into an already occupied cell and if that wasn't bad enough it was occupied by a little girl. Thankfully she was still clothed though there wasn't much left of what she’d tentatively call a dress. It hadn't been anything fancy to start with but now it was little more than a torn rag that covered her. She was too young for breeding purposes so either they were keeping her to eat her or they were planning to use her down the road. If the elder was in charge and they were keeping her that didn't bode well for them. Magic users were rare among goblins and rarer were any that lived that long. The fact that there was an elder sage, an extremely rare class evolution. For a goblin had to be smart enough to live long in the ever shifting roles of power. Taking a subsidiary role while trying to maintain their status. That was not quite top of the food chain but high enough on the ladder so when the next leader took over, they'd still have authority but not enough authority that they would be a target or a threat. So, she doubted that he was the one that was actually in charge most likely he was answering to someone higher up. Hopefully, someone in the dungeon because if they weren't here it was likely they had a new goblin king on their hands somewhere, and somewhere relatively close by if one of his lieutenants was here
“Hey there sweetheart are you OK? They haven't done anything to you have they?” Alex asked, turning her attention to the scared girl. The girl just shook her head no in response.
“That's good I'm Alexandria though everyone calls me Alex I'm with the adventurers Guild and I know things look bad right now but trust me my friend got away. I made sure of that before they caught me. Now that they know that we're here and they know these goblins are actual threats. They will send a much much larger group to come clear them out. We just need to stay strong until they do, alright.” Alex said approaching the girl. She backed away from her timidly but gave her another nod.
“Now this is important do you know if there's anyone else here?” She asked gently hoping to coax a response from her. She nodded.
“my brother got grabbed with me out of our fields back home but I haven't seen him since we got here and that feels like it was forever ago.” The little girl said trying not to cry.
Alex pulled her into a hug and tried to bite back a swear. Kids weren't the best when it came to judging time to begin with especially underground. She doubted the little girl's brother was still alive but if they had been brought in that morning and they were lucky he might still be. If they had been brought in two or more days ago definitely not. Either way, she needed to get going fast and try and find out. She jumped when she heard a growl from the entranceway. It was the goblin she had fought with earlier the one with the sword barged in carrying her sword now.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
‘Well, that was handy.’ She thought to herself just need to figure out how to it get from it and she had an idea a disgusting horrible idea but probably her best bet to make it out of this alive.
“The one I want you to find the furthest point of the room you can from him and cover your eyes and ears I'll let you know when it's safe to go.” She said giving the girl a pat on her back as she tried to back away from the goblin. She had to play the role of helpless victim, something she hated but something she needed to do. She needs to be scared as goblins could actually smell fear on their victims. Something that wasn't too hard because if she screwed this up the goblin would likely take her head fair trade for what she was about to do though in her opinion. The goblin, through his loin cloth aside then reluctantly playing her part lowered her head and reached for his throbbing erection. She wanted no part in this the small green thing cock was filthy and rank from his past conquests and lack of hygiene. At first, it growled at her until it realized what she was doing and reluctantly enjoyed it for a moment before it reached for her. Not wanting him to have any form of control she swallowed her pride and the bile in the back of her throat and shoved the thing into her mouth. It tasted worse than she had feared and took every ounce of willpower not to gag and throw up from its taste and smell in her mouth. Never before had she wished so heavily that mouthwash was a thing in this reality. She sucked, she bobbed she did everything she could to make it as pleasurable for the goblin as possible. She needed him to cum it wasn't but a few minutes later he cam. Filling her mouth with some of the worst tasting substances she ever had the displeasure of having in her mouth instead of gagging like she wanted she bit down hard enough to bite his member clean off. Before he had a chance to try and recover, she punched him knocking him back dropping her sword. She dove for the sword managing to grab it but before she could do anything with it he backhanded her. She instinctively swallowed the cum, member, and blood. She felt something in her change the system buzzing and screaming in her head. Dizzy from the hit but she could not falter. She sprung up her sword in hand and ran the goblin through before crumbling to the ground and blacking out. Not but a few seconds later she was awakened by the small child shaking her begging her to please be alright. She gasped in a cold sweat, she felt like fire was running through her veins as a window popped up in front of her.
Congratulations skill classification has been upgraded reclass has gained the subclassification skill of monster class.]
She had never heard of this subclass skill before. She knew about them of course subclass skills were modifiers. They altered the effect of a primary skill, for instance, her fireball skill. If was granted say the large fireball subclass skill she would automatically be able to make fireballs the size of basketballs or if she really poured manna into it boulders. The skill basically allowed her to size up the size of the fireball and thus the area of effect it damaged when it hit. However, she had never heard of reclass having any subclassifications she knew it could give other skills sub skills. Such as the reequip spell being able to save loadouts that could be swapped to whenever the class was changed. Though she had heard a legend of a reclass user who could set up skill presets. So she guessed it wasn't impossible if that was a subclassification but if it was he never properly registered it so she wasn't entirely sure if the old story was true. She was pulled from her musing by the distressed cry of the little girl who started shaking her again. She closed the window and turned to look at her.
“Don't worry I'm-I'm OK I just unlocked I really strange new ability it …… it threw me off. Just, just give me a moment and I'll get us out of here.” She sighed, wiping the cold sweat from her forehead, her hands felt clammy and the fiery sensation inside of her wasn't going away. If anything, it was getting hotter. The moment she got to her feet another skill window popped up [minimum recovery parameters met completing reclassification] with a flash Alex suddenly found herself at the same height of a now terrified little girl who squealed and backed away from her she looked down at herself and Oh crap! She was no longer a she. She was now a goblin hey single gender male species.
“What the hell!” She said in utter shock panicking she brought up her status screen blinking when she saw the reclass option next to her race as well as her statin skills screen. With a desperate mental command, she selected it saying only two options goblin and human female. She desperately selected human and with another flash, she was back to normal.
“Oh thank the gods that actually worked, ah I should probably explain.” She said noticing the terrified visage of the little girl.
“I have a skill called reclass you let me change my classification. I don't know how much you know about adventuring ranks but essentially anyone with a job that requires magic has something that is called the system. It grants you abilities to help you learn and progress. You can still learn things without the system, it's just a bit harder. My system is unique because it has a skill called reclass in it which lets me change what I've previously learned. However, when I fought the goblin just now the system taught me something new. A new skill called monster class which apparently lets me change into monsters like the goblins. I partially activated it by mistake and had to finish it. That's why I fainted but now that I know how to use the skill I can do it whenever I want.” She explained sitting on the floor trying to be as none threatening to the poor girl as she possible. She could see Alex wasn't coming after her she eventually calmed down enough to at least come out of the corner though she kept her distance from her still clearly afraid. Alex just nodded and figured this was the best she could probably ask for she got up grabbed her sword and search the goblins body finding a simple latch key which she just rolled her eyes at.
Having had to play the role of a rogue more than once she had come to understand that while this world was a pre industrial world it was not lacking in modern amenities. It mostly came down to money and magic, either the magically powerful or the incredibly wealthy most commonly they were both could live in modern sometimes even futuristic luxury. Well, the rest of the world we're barely above the Middle Ages the only reason she even believes they were above it. This was because they had at least a decent understanding of hygiene in medicine, though their best medicine was at World War 2 era at best. Though they had next to no idea of surgery despite cutting out whatever was bad and then using regeneration magic to grow it back. The one thing that surprised her the most was weaponry some of the dwarven nations had actual guns and tanks though since they were the least magical of all the races that made a bit more sense she guessed.
She stopped her musing to focus on using the oddly shaped hook to reach inside the small metal box and undo the latch opening the cell. She had seen locks that had to deal with shapes locks that had to deal with actual modern keys she had seen magic locks. She had even seen mechanical monstrosities that even after maxing out her lock picking skill to the point it physically hurt her, she could just barely understand. Yet the most common were either the simple latch locks or an indent key lock where the key was just a bit of wood with the right notches carved into. They just inserted it and then hit it to pop the lock. This did make it easier to know what was actually valuable. It also meant that unless you were doing something illegal or going into someplace extremely magical you rarely needed a rogue outside of disabling traps. She had heard tails, some of the mid to higher tier dungeons having chests with actual mechanical locks but she had never been able to confirm it.
She turned back to the little girl. “OK sweetie oh wait I never got your name sorry. What's your name little one.”
“Poppi.” The girl said timidly.
“OK Poppi I'm going to use my skills to turn into a goblin rogue. Then I'm going to scout around. I'm not going to go far but I'm going to go ahead of you so we can try and find a good place for you to hide while I make sure we're safe and try and find your brother do you understand.” She asked, getting a nod from the girl.
“Alright Poppi let's do this.” She said using both reclass and monster class and, in a flash, she found herself stuck in a generic goblin body.
This was odd Since monsters mutated heavily with the increase of stats where humans showed little change. Maxing out strength gave larger muscles maxing out charisma gave her larger boobs and ass and she's supposed to pretty face. Dexterity made her as flexible as a contortionist and gave her impressive legs. However, it took dumping a massive number of points into anyone to make them easily noticeable but in monsters, the points were far more noticeable when spent. Even a single point in strength would give noticeable muscles, she looked at her stats and realized the reclass hadn't carried over. She had her full loadout unspent in front of her no wait she had 10 more stat points than she used to and three skill points. She didn't have time to really stop and think about it, she dumped a few points into strength, a few points into intelligence just enough so she could use magic. The majority of her points into dexterity and pain on imaginable pain her body ripped and warped her body. When the pain finally stopped several new notifications appeared in her vision. [Congratulations new evolutions unlocked goblin rogue, goblin assassin, goblin sneak, hobgoblin, hobgoblin rogue, hobgoblin assassin, hobgoblin sneak. Seven new racial bonuses have been unlocked. Three additional trait slots have been unlocked. New skills unlocked and added to skill selection. Congratulations you have gotten your first locked skill Monstrous. Monstrous: Allows you to take on some aspects of chosen from a list of available monsters well retaining a human form. Due to your access to imprecise shape shifting and stealth based abilities you have gained the new unique skill Customize. Customize: Allows the user to make minor changes to the user's appearance. At higher levels can allow for changes in gender height skin color and at Max level can allow for the change to other races of similar Genius.
“What the fuck?” She had just jumped through seven evolutions. She knew goblins never had high levels and low stats but most thought that was just from them not living long. Because of reclass, Alex had more skill points and stat points to spend than what was average for her level, but it appeared that monsters, or maybe it was just goblins had extreme reactions to placing even a single point. That's why she had evolved so much from so few points she stood up and looked over her new form. Noticing the shock from the little girl nodded at her and said she was fine. She felt ridiculously strong checking her status screen she almost fainted seeing the numbers a single stat point for her was worth 15 points to a goblin 30 to a hobgoblin. She had almost every state in the triple digits. She smirked picking up her sword this, this was going to be fun.