The goblin army finally made it to the dungeon’s entrance, choosing to stop literally right outside of the dungeon’s entrance. The entrance looked like a giant crack in the wall of a sheer cliff face, leading into a cave. Being enough only for a single goblin to squeeze through at a time, they almost passed by the entrance before being stopped by the goblin chief’s advisor, who had detected the dungeon’s entrance using an unknown method. Their journey had taken a few days, due to the large size of their army, and the slow speed of the elderly and young goblins. Although many of the goblins were discontent with their slow speed, they weren’t inconsiderate enough to ditch the young and elderly like that. Goblin society valued strength, but they didn’t go so far as to willingly kill off weaklings. The chief of the goblins started barking orders, and the army began to set up, normal goblins began to unpack resources from crude satchels, handing them out to the hungry, and to those who would be going into the Dungeon. The chattering of goblins, and the barks and snarls of wolves began to fill the clearing surrounding the dungeon’s entrance.

The Chief’s advisor stood at the very edge of the clearing, standing next to a goblin warrior who had been assigned to guard him. The goblin warrior, however, was so excited at the prospect of fighting monsters within the dungeon, he probably wouldn’t have noticed if the advisor had left his side. Not like the advisor was willing to leave safety, however. Even among the goblins, he had the weakest physicality, due to his old age, and his choice of evolution. However, soon his physical weaknesses could be covered completely by an overwhelming magical power, which he could only acquire with the core of the dungeon. Sneering under his mask as he thought about the power he would soon have; the advisor was reminded of the past. He wasn’t originally this weak, and he also wasn’t originally this smart. When he was a young goblin, he had been captured and enslaved by a human. Specifically, a rogue mage who lived near the mountains. That mage had tortured him, crippling his body in the process, yet the mage had also had the glaring stupidity to allow Gwenthy, as he had been named back then, to roam wherever he wanted within the mage’s prison of a home. That is how Gwenthy had learned the basics of magic, evolving into a goblin shaman, and killing his owner while he slept, allowing him to cast his hateful name to the wind, becoming known as the ‘advisor’.

Blinking himself out of those horrible memories of the past, the advisor turned to view the army once again. 25 or so goblin warriors would lead the charge into the dungeon. Since it was a small entrance, they would squeeze through one by one, and form a line to guard the incoming troops. From then, the rest of the army; consisting of 13 scouts, 6 berserkers, 7 tamers with their 23 wolves, 30 normal goblins, the chief, his bodyguard, and the advisor himself would enter the dungeon. From then, the goblins would form groups consisting of 1 scout, 1 soldier, 1 berserker or tamer, and 2 normal goblins. These 13 groups would probe around to locate the dungeon core as quickly as possible while the chief, his bodyguard, the advisor, and the other remaining forces would wait near the entrance. After locating the core, the teams were to retreat, sending signals to each other using flash fruit; a fruit which emits a blinding flash of light when it impacts on something. For this purpose, the groups were ordered to stay within 150 steps of each other (not like they were actually expected to), so they all retreat in a timely matter. After returning, the goblin army would move as one and push straight to the core, killing everything in their way and capturing the core.

The advisor sniggered as he imagined the ‘plan’ he was to take part in. Of course, he would take the core for himself and use it to store mana for magic and experiments. Controlling a dungeon was extremely dangerous, as there was no way to tell when the dungeon might turn on its owner. He would rather have the core than actual control over the dungeon. Without its core, the dungeon would die anyway, and the resources within it would be his for the taking. After sneering again under his mask, he glanced up as he heard the chief’s call to set off. Leaving behind the elderly and young goblins, as well as a few goblin warriors to guard them, the combat-ready goblins began to make their way into the cave…

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They’ve arrived. Dylan’s [Dungeon Watching] detected the goblins as they began to enter his dungeon. As the entirety of the goblin army crawled into his dungeon cave, Dylan ‘gulped’ in nervousness. A preliminary scan yielded at least 20 goblin warriors, at least 30 normal looking goblins, a large group of wolves, 6 weird looking goblins with markings like tattoos covering their bodies, 7 goblins covered in bite marks and scars on their arms, and two weird ones. One of the weird goblins was significantly taller than the average goblin, being the height of a human. It was also ridiculously muscular, and was wearing animal pelts on its body, unlike the loincloth-wearing goblins which made up the rest of the army. Its canines jutted out from its lower jaw, giving it a huge underbite, teeth sticking out of its mouth, while wielding a sturdy branch which seemed to be shaped in the likeness of a club. The other weird goblin was covered in a robe which looked surprisingly like cloth. It wore a mask which seemed to depict a face, with feathers coming out from it. Its body was the exact opposite of the other weirdo, being short, with a crooked back, leaning heavily against a gnarled staff. Dylan decided to label them the ‘Big chief’ and the ‘Small chief’. He assumed that both of them were eligible to be chief due to their unique appearances, and the fact that the big chief was barking orders at the goblins to ‘move out’.

Expecting a head on rush into his forest, Dylan was surprised as he saw the goblins begin to group together, forming groups of about 5 to 9 combatants. They seemed to consist of 3 normal goblins, 1 soldier, and either one of the goblins with scars on their arms or markings on their bodies. After comparing the groups, Dylan realized that the groups that had ‘scar-arm goblins’, as Dylan would now refer to them, had at least 3 wolves with them. This led Dylan to believe that the scar-arm goblins were beast tamers of some sort, as the wolves occasionally nuzzled up to them. After the 13 groups formed, a seemingly normal-looking goblin began to lead them through the forest, with groups staying dozens of feet away from each other. After pushing through the undergrowth, the groups seemed to scatter, with some rushing deeper into the forest quickly, while others took their times.

Shit. My strategy is going out of the window. Dylan cursed in his mind. If he simply ignored the group of goblins remaining, which consisted of a large number of goblin soldiers, as well as the two weird goblins, he would still need to carefully plan his next steps. He did have the terrain and number advantage, but he knew that those goblin soldiers could take down multiple centipedes. The scar-arm goblins with their wolves also threw off Dylan’s swarming strategy, and those weird marking-covered goblins had to have a strong suit which offset the number advantage from the scar-arm goblins.

Hmmmm… Dylan gave a [Dungeon Order] to his monsters. As he watched the groups pressing through the forest, Dylan decided on his plan; harass, bait, retreat, and kill. This plan relied heavily on the mobility of his leaping bombardier beetles to harass 1 or 2 groups at a time with their acid, then showing themselves, hopefully drawing the ire of the goblins, who may rush to kill them. As they distanced themselves from the other groups, Dylan would drown them into monsters until they died, hopefully killing off everything in the group before moving on to the next group. Dylan designated 42 giant centipedes, and all of the heavy bombardier beetles to remain around the perimeter of the goblin camp, ready to react in the case that the group with the two weird goblins moved out. He gathered most of his monsters at a point about 100 feet ahead of a group of goblins spear-heading the operation, and had the rest follow the group quietly. Settling all of them high into the trees in advance worked to his advantage, as they were able to move undetected and uninhibited through the trees. As the goblins pushed through the underbrush, Dylan signaled to a couple leaping bombardier beetles, starting the first attack.