Okay, I admit that I was following the standards of another world set by people who probably never even know if such a world exists or not, as such the orc’s talking came as a huge shock to me. You have to understand that before today, I always thought orcs to be a race only capable of thinking with their crotch and often in games and videos, you guys would see them as cannon fodder A who kidnapped the princess knight to do some weird stuff.

Anyway faced with such intelligent questions that laced with emotions indescribable to me, I couldn’t muster the courage to land the finishing blow. Therefore, I lowered my hand and instead stared at the beady eyes of the orc that looked tired and ready to close any moment. Exercising enough caution, I tried to speak, “you can talk?” I asked once again. Of course, what I said wasn’t a clear speech but a cluster of growls from my undeveloped voice box.

Somehow, the orc understood it.

“Of course I could speak” the orc looked at me in the eyes and continued, “I am an adult Orc after all. But I am surprised that you can speak even though you are just an infant.”

I replied casually to the question with an “I am special case” and continued asking, “what do those goblins want from you?” I was curious about it, to be honest. Even though the orc held a deterrence over those things, it was still too much of an overkill to send hundreds of goblins to gang up on a single monster. After a few days of interaction, though I could tell those green things were dumb, but they were not that dumb to the point of doing something like that. It was very strange in my opinion.

“Those goblins… it was actually their turf and I am the intruder. They wanted me away from their turf.” The wounded orc explained as he rolled to his back while facing to the roof. I subconsciously stepped back when I saw it move, but the orc just laughed and said “don’t worry little imp, I won’t do anything to you. Besides, in my current state, even if I want to, I couldn’t.”

The orcs words didn’t bring me comfort, contrarily I became even more guarded against it. This didn’t escape his eyes as its mouth parted somewhat in what appeared to be a smirk or was it smile, I couldn’t tell with his pig face at all.

“Eh? Goblins have territory too?” I was surprised about this issue more than the orc’s high intelligence.

“All monsters in this place do. Even my tribe has a huge territory to our name. Normally no one dares to intrude upon other’s territory unless it’s absolutely necessary.” The orc explained while taking deep breaths. I observed from the corner of my eyes that the wounds on his body weren’t healing at all. Even though those weren’t deep wounds, the blood continued to flow out of those swallow cuts, making a pool below his huge muscular body.

“Those wounds, they aren’t healing… why is that? They aren’t that deep of a wound, then how come?” I asked seeing even the smallest of the wounds bleeding profusely. The rate the wounds were bleeding, I was sure at this rate this pig would die next few hours.

“That’s a price I have to pay as I had overexerted my body’s capabilities and burned my life force during that scuffle with goblins.” The orcs words stunned me but it was within my expectations as I did consider this point before asking the question. Now that one problem solved, I asked about the second problem, the real reason behind the orc’s appearance in this place. After all, if he knew this was goblin’s territory, why would he come here to seek troubles? This orc didn’t strike me as one of those bloodthirsty bunch who could only think of fighting and growing stronger.

His answer, however, surprised me as well as bringing me a sense of crisis.

This orc, who introduced himself as Logier, was actually a chieftain of one of many orc tribes that call the second floor of this dungeon as their habitat. It so happens that his tribe was in grave trouble, facing the crisis of complete annihilation. Therefore, he set out to look for new places to call home and possibly escape the inevitable fate befallen on his tribe. One of the neighboring orc tribes suddenly had a “unique class” offspring born amidst them which inadvertently crumbled the delicate balance maintained by the different tribes.

That tribe, who called themselves Bloodyvore Tribe, immediately declared war against all their neighboring tribes the moment the offspring with “unique class” reached the juvenile stage. Currently, Logier’s tribe was facing the crisis of extermination because they had rejected Bloodyvore Tribe’s proposal of becoming their vassals. Pressured by such events, Logier the orc decided to move house and look for somewhere those Bloodyvores couldn’t reach in the short term. Coincidentally the floor just below was a good place to start; however, never had he expected to receive such a huge resistance from the goblins, the original hegemon of this floor.

From this short story, I learned a few things, first, there were things called “unique class” among monsters. According to Logier, monsters of this category carry a birthmark on their body and imbued with special powers from their birth, which would set apart from their peers. They were destined to lead the race they born into.

Second, every floor in the dungeon had a ‘ruler’ of its own. The floor I born on, the actual ruler of this place was the goblins. This explained their monopoly over the whole place as well as the reason why I never saw any other monsters besides the occasional slimes.

Third, the sense of crisis I felt from the process of elimination that waiting for me in the future. If even an orc of such strength was forced into a dead-end, what a mere Imp like me could do? Unless I grow in strength myself, I wouldn’t be able to preserve my life. Eventually, I either would be eliminated or treated as a slave by monsters stronger than me.

“Little Imp, can you do me a favor? Bring those dead goblins scattered across the floor for me. I would recover rapidly by consuming their flesh.” To the orcs request, I could have denied and left him to his own devices… but a brilliant plan already formulated in my mind. To rapidly grow in strength; I needed to increase my stats and skill levels. Also, I need to amass more Eps to see what would happen when I reach the threshold. But such a thing wasn’t possible in a short period of time if I rely solely on my own capability.

I needed a helper.

“Logier, you are looking to conquer this floor right? You want to separate yourself from the violent and genocidal tribe and start a new life with your people, right?” I asked calmly, well as calm as an imp with its scratchy voice could sound. With my wide eyes, I stared down to the eyes of the Orc that was devouring the goblin I pulled for him.

“Indeed I am. That’s the whole reason I took the risk of fighting those disgusting green things. Although I underestimated their ganging up move, they were too weak to pose a threat to me. With the help of my family, I could get rid of them or at least force myself to be an occupant of his floor.” Logier seems to have already formulated a plan. Who said orcs were dumb, who said monsters were dumb? They had their own tactics and own form of empire and civilization. To be frank, I was impressed by Logier’s idea, but I discovered a hitch in his plan and thus I started to sell my worth to him.

“You have made an impressive plan, but there is a problem with your plan,” I walked with my hands behind my back like an ancient Chinese master, “unlike you people, these goblins excel in proliferation. In a long drawn battle, you won’t survive against their ganging up tactics. Ultimately, you will be eliminated by default. Unless you remove the green bastards from their root, you won’t be able to rest in peace. They will be like the thorn on yours and your tribe’s throat.”

“What? Is it true? I didn’t consider this issue at all…” Logier suddenly sounded depressed as his voracious consumption halted midway. He started to think deeply on this issue as his forehead creased.

“I can help you with this problem. You can leave the strategy to me, in return I want you to make a few promises to me…” my mouth stretched as a wretched smile appeared on my ugly face, “I can guarantee that you will be the undisputed owner of this floor.”

Logier’s frown deepened as he looked at me “what promise?”