"Fucking finally found it! Gods, this is worse than minecraft! I've found fucking tungsten and gold but it took me two days to find iron! And I don't even have coal!" Complained Aki while sending Tsu and his skeletons to kill the wolf like things inside the cave.
"NEVER TIRE! NEVER HUNGER! NEVER FEAR!"
To those wondering, that was Aki casting a mass buffs in english. The language you chant doesn't really influence the result if you can actually use the spell correctly, so when he had the idea it just seemed like the perfect chant for a force of undead.
It is technically a failed spell since he could only infuse dark magic into it, even though he wanted to use death magic, but even he could see how there would be complications he was trying to hit face first by doing it like that, so he just accepted it.
As the buff took effect, the strike force positioned itself to sneak attack the beasts to the best of Aki's ability, since he was the one making sure the skeleton's stepped on the right places and didn't rattle their bones, the second was actually easier since skeletal undead use mana as a sort of glue to keep their parts in place and strengthen their physical specs, so the better he can summon then, the more well done would that formation be.
'Aki, we better retreat, that one in the middle is a Dire plague wolf, all of its attacks are corrosive and it's swiftness makes the enemies before seem like slugs.' Thought the woman. One of Aki's ghosts were possessing her now and he could read her surface level thoughts.
"Exactly why I am gonna need you to stay still in your current position and act as my catalyst so I can throw a spell at it and then throw lightning bolts at it." Said the disembodied voice who could only be heard by those related to the dungeon.
A warm energy started condensing in front of the hobgoblin and was surprised to find she recognized the spell as a light shot, a basic light attribute spell, which confused her since Aki was strange, but he should know such spell would be useless against a level 41, or so he told her, even if it was from it's bane element.
He made sure she couldn't hear him mutter the spell though, or it would simply tell her he was planning to do something similar but very different.
Ten minutes later:
"Penetrate. Light. Burn. Condense. Scatter."
Just as he uttered the last word, a small needle of light shot towards the unsuspecting direwolf and entered its left nostril, drawing a little blood from the inner side of his head, causing it to sneeze.
"Shoot whatever you have at it's mouth, now!" Aki screamed and a 'pop' sound came from the wolf, followed by whimpers of pain as part of it's nose practically exploded, two spears to it's head, of which only only stuck because it hit the base of it's mouth because the skeleton to throw it was the closest, followed by lightning hitting the spear and further stunning the beast.
With support from 2 elemental mages and fearlessness, the skeletons made short work of the pack of wolves, with their alpha being the first to fall.
"Well now, I will summon some more skeleton and you guys can have five or six of these, but I want the plage direwolf."
"Firstly, you know that's not how you say the name, you fucking see it in everything!"
True, there is no way to get the appraisal skill without using dungeons and their nature is a very big part of the reason.
"Second, you did most of the job on it and now I'm level 38, even getting less would be fair." She said with shrug.
"Don't diminish yourself that much dear. Besides, I hardly have an use for fifteen full wolves and am already taking a little more to compensate for some experimenting." He explained.
That picked her interest.
"Aki, are you going to experiment making monster?" She asked in all seriousness.
"That too, why? You seem worried."
"I just wanted to ask why haven't I seen any girl pregnant with a monster." She asked still maintaining the same tone.
That option costs less resources and depending of the mother, may actually cause a new species to be born.
"..." You could practically hear Aki blink in confusion. "Tsu, I haven't had sex with anyone besides your daughter, and that time her husband was there as well. Even if I had done others though, I wouldn't use them for spawning. I can only spawn monsters that would end up killing the mother or maybe some goblins. Neither seemed like a good idea when the prompt asked me, so I just choose to do nothing. Right now maybe the normal wolves might be an option too, but I'm not exactly in the mood for sex. Maybe when I feel I'm more in control of myself. " He explained and understanding appeared over the hobgoblin' s face.
For those thinking it strange, please understand that normal goblins simply die too easily and their culture involves plenty of sex because of that. Kissing and holding hands is considered romantic still, but everyone is encouraged to leave the maximum amount of decendants.
Oh, and the thing about control, almost forgot that, it's just that Aki got a new set of urges, which contain breeding, conquest and expansion, all in a mind numbing amount. Plenty of good and bad things because of the goblins and the urges really.
Since his first partners totally out performed him, he was simply too tired to do anything to them and as a weak dungeon his urge changed to not fall unconscious while in front of possible threats. After that he simply resisted and went with the flow.
As cons, it is hard to think with the upper head when there's lots of people you can hear and see fucking like rabbits.
Not like he wouldn't be worried about having sex as a human since he was quite sure he would subconsciously become dependent on the person that took his virginity and/or sex itself .
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
"It certainly seems like a terrible idea when you put it like that. I'm sorry I thought for a second that you were going to start with the breeding and… well…" She tried to apologize while scratching her head, but just couldn't think of what to say.
"It's fine, really. In your position I'd be even more suspicious of me. I'd also be more worried about me starting a prison them a breeding ground. Maybe I'd enter in contact with whatever elf and start dressing you up for the giggles of it." He jabbed at her.
"Yeah, ok, you got me there. Can we pretend we didn't have this conversation? Asked the former slave.
"What conversation?
"Uh?
"But did you say something?
"No, I'm sure you were just telling me how amazing I was while helping."
"Most certainly, if I had a body I'd be groveling and singing you praise while licking your feet."
"Bleh, never understood what's so good about that."
"Some people just have a feet fetish but are too prideful to reveal it."
*****
"Do I really have to help with this too?" Asked an unwilling Tsu who was pulled back to the Core room the moment she was fully rested.
"Of course, you're the least flammable goblin around after all."
And they started learning about smithing by failing and trying again with the miserable knowledge from those 2 novels Aki once read in Royal Road bout crafting affictionados.
This would all be easier if they could just get some equipment and Aki deconstructed it, but goblins have their purchases monitored by other races for plenty of reason.
With their repopulation rate, if goblins were stronger than they would simply dominate large territories.
That's what Aki is aiming for by the way. Right now Malit, the lead huntress, is taking some info out of some goblin hunter from another tribe nearby that got separated from his band.
Information is half the battle after all.
During a break to regenerate mana:
"Ok, let me get this straight. There's 2 human countries in this continent and you ran from one to the other because your tribe was attacked on the first one, after roaming and leveling for some years you reached another tribe, defeated their chieftain and evolved, got sold out to elves as a slave because no one liked you, trained to serve and given a skill book on both elven and common. Some years later you picked on magic because no one stopped you from self learning and believed you totally bound because of the slave crest. Weeks after you cast your first fire bolt your master was ambushed and you ran away after an enemy because you couldn't hear anything and the orders didn't reach you, somewhere in between your master died and no one bound you again. After skinning the crest out you ran till you got into a cave and somehow ended in the underdark than became this place's shaman. Lady, that's one damn story for one freaking boob scar! Besides, you're hella old for a goblin and they definitely didn't start to sag, so I can only take that as you really not wanting to work"
"No idea what you are talking about."
"You just spent the last half hour telling me the story. At least have the courage to admit it woman. If you want a break and we're not in the middle of an attempt we can stop, you know?" He almost made eyes just to roll then together with this sentence.
"Thank you so very much! This shit's been killing me. Just learn healing magic at once, will you!?" She complained.
"I already know it, but I can't cast the needed spell at all. I could, however, make you half dead so it would not matter and grow the skin with dungeon powers or exchange the whole damaged parts with monster parts and use healing magic to make your body support its new parts, wanna try? Your body should get back to normal if you evolve again." He offered.
"That… I didn't actually think you'd suggest anything else. I've got to think on this." She said after a second of starring Dumbledore at nothing.
"That's fine, and by the way, being half dead means that part of your body is controlled by bodily functions and another part is controlled by your soul. Like a zombie, just prettier and smarter." He tried to explain before she discarded the option because of how it sounded. Really, it was the safer option too.
"Pffff… Are you trying to make it so there would be no other man would want this lady? Boy, depending of how you do I might just accept." She heartly laughed and held her sides, getting a mental blush from Aki.
It was a strange feeling she didn't understand fast enough to deduce what it was, so he hurried her to keep working after that.
*****
"We finally made our first good dagger! Can't wait to shove it up so elven ass." Said Aki the next day.
Suddenly, the drown commanding the band of warriors and traders that inspect the goblin tribes felt a shiver roll down her spine and reflexively clenched her anus, getting some worried looks from her unit.
"Can we not? Please?"Asked a disgusted Tsu. She'd much prefer to put it up a wall to remember the first thing she forged, since it actually gave her a sense of pride or accomplishment.
"I guess it wasn't only my work, so if you don't want to that's fine, but it has to have its first taste of blood." He said with a little less enthusiasm, but them put up a tone that said 'this ain't negotiable'.
"We could do better weapons now that we got the skills, but that's fine I guess? Anyway, try not to be straight out hostile with the elves, ok?" She said with a defeated tone.
"Do I really have to introduce myself? Isn't it dangerous as hell?" Asked the still worried core.
"Not if they don't know you are special. I told you already, dungeons spawn a lot more in the underdark and 2 other goblin tribes have dungeon hosts as well, it is not like they are going to send someone to kill you. Even your undead are not a problem if you prove to be able to tolerate the living." She reassured him.