Chapter 30 part 2: Goblin Lord’s Plan

‘Where did it went wrong, why is this happening?’ Countless questions born in my heart as I watched the brutal slaughter happening before my eyes. My creations, on whom I pinned all my hope of one day leaving this wretched prison, were slaughtering each other in a festival of blood. As if they had gone mad and found solace in this bloodbath. They were brutally killing each other, paying no heed to anything else. Even the infants were not spared from this madness.

“Urt, what is happening here?” I asked in a shaky voice. It didn’t sound like the usually calm and authoritative that it used to be when I ordered them around in the past. Panicky as I was, this Goblin General wouldn’t care it either way. He wasn’t capable of such complex emotions yet. Goblins fell short to our opponent, the orcs in this as well. Even my potions couldn’t surmount this hurdle.

“I don’t know, Lord.” Urt looked on with a mild frown. Despite the situation, I felt rather surprised at this evolution of his emotions. “Even with my Hive Mind, I could no longer control their actions.” Urt informed me with his usual cold and detached voice. Most goblins would talk in fragmented sentences, even after reaching the adult stage. Only a few ones, who were on the absolute peak of their growth stage could form a complete sentence, as their brains were evolved enough for that.

“But why is this happening?” I gritted my teeth and asked in a suppressed rage. No matter what, I had invested countless hours to create them. Seeing them killing each other was a very bitter pill to swallow. “They were fine not long ago! Why did they suddenly start slaughtering each other?” I asked expecting an answer. But, perhaps due to the situation itself resulting in my messed up mental state, I forgot I was talking to a goblin. Realizing this soon after the question left my mouth, I sighed and patted my head to calm myself down.

“I don’t know, Lord. Maybe the potion you gave them is showing some aftereffects…!”

“Impossible!” I denied it instantly. What a joke? How many years did this dumb goblin think I am making potions? How can I not know if it had some adverse effects? However, nothing else could explain this sudden mental change of the goblins. Although I denied it verbally, in my heart, I was already considering this point.

Suddenly, an adult goblin, enhanced by my potion, came running towards us as he let out a ferocious roar. Its eyes were red, and blood veins were visible all over its body. Before I even made a move, Urt threw a punch, vaporizing its head in seconds. Its brain matters splattered everywhere like busting a watermelon.

He was insanely strong back then, even before he became a General. He stood out from his peers with his strength back then too. Not even adults could compare to him when he was just a juvenile. If not for my years of experience, I would have thought of him as a Unique Monster too. However, he was not even close to one. He was just innately strong, being born with higher strength attributes than the rest.

Without the Invocation Mark I could no longer see the attribute values. I couldn’t change them as per my wishes as well. But, thanks to the witchcraft I learned during my youth, I could somewhat tilt the attribute growth towards a certain direction, thereby becoming a Goblin Chemist. The role Goblin Chemist was infinitely closer to an Alchemist role of humans. Aside from my body, I retained everything else form my past life. Knowledge was something intangible, but even more valuable than tangible products. A potion might be expensive, but it’s the formula that was even more valuable.

Therefore, although I lost my body and my level of strength, all the knowledge I had accumulated throughout my life was still there, in my head. Above all else, the most fortunate thing was that I was alive after going through such an ordeal. As long as I am alive, someday I will have my revenge against that disciple of mine.

“Then, can we only wait for them to kill each other?” I am unresigned to this outcome. My hard work will all go down the drain if this was not stopped. On top of it, another headache was the life span of a goblin. Though I was a Goblin Chemist, at the end of the day, I was still a goblin. Goblins live for a decade at most. From my calculations, it was already two years since I became a goblin. Unless I evolve to a higher race, I will grow old and die in a few years.

My target was to become a Hobgoblin. Not only I would improve qualitatively, but my age limit will also increase from 10 to 30. However, it was easier said than done. Without the Invocation Mark showing me the way, I was running blind and kept taking detours. It was such a divine invention. With the help of this mark, not only growing in strength was easier, even evolving to higher races like Elves, High Humans, Spell Lords became exceedingly easy for the humans.

I also tried to become an Elf back then when I was a human, but the requirements were excessively stringent and harder to fulfill. Unlike monsters where they have to kill and consume the race they wanted to become, humans have many requirements they need to fulfill before changing their race. The reason I was so fixated on creating this army because I wanted to challenge the boss of the first floor, Hobgoblin Jude. After killing it and consuming its flesh, I will have a ninety percent probability of evolving into one almost instantly.

But now, that dream looks far and obscure.

“Urt, if you and I work together, what is the probability of us killing that hobgoblin?” In the past, I challenged that hobgoblin once. However, we couldn’t last even one minute against that monstrous creature. With a casual swing of its weapon, a spiked mace, it wiped out nearly a thousand of adult goblins enhanced by my potions.

A thousand goblins!

If not for that incident causing me to lose a huge number of my soldiers, would I be forced to the corner like now? What orcs? My unstoppable goblin army armed with poison weapons could have long wiped them out.

“I will be defeated in one move.” Urt’s curt and clear admittance of his weakness doused a bucket of cold water on my head. That faint thought I had about re-challenging the hobgoblin with our current strength gone in smokes. But, it only made me feel restless. Who doesn’t fear death? I, who have died once, did not want to feel it again. The cold touch of death and the feeling of hopelessness as strength gradually leaves your body… it’s too frightening. I don’t want to feel that ever again in my life.

However, I don’t want to feel it doesn’t mean it will not come to me. I had to do something about it. A plan gradually formed in my head. Looking at Urt, who was coldly and apathetically staring at the goblins’ battle royale, I gave an order. “Urt, stop these goblins this instant. After that, go and talk with the Orcs. Tell them, I want to meet their leader. Their real leader!”

“What do you mean by real leader? Didn’t you already met with him and even gave him a wound to remember?” Urt asked confusedly while looking at me. He scratched the back of his head in confusion; clearly couldn’t make out the true meaning behind my words. Indeed, I had already met with the orc leader, and even took away his arm with a lethal dose of my Corrosion Potion.

But, these Orcs bounced back within a short period of time and even fought more carefully than before. What does that mean? Orc leader whom I met might not be the real leader. Someone else controlled the orc force in secret. I don’t know the identity of that controller, but I doubt it’s a human. Then again, having seen the world, I can’t be too sure.

Goblins, as a race didn’t offer too much. They weren’t of much value to hunters above D rank. What could a human gain by wiping out a bunch of useless monsters? If I was not wrong, that leader must also want to challenge the Hobgoblin. Moreover, they wanted to make use of Orc's force to topple over the strength of that horrendous monster. However, aside from the monsters of this dungeon, no one else knows that there was a hidden boss on each floor.

Not all dungeons have hidden bosses. Only those, which were ranked above C, tend to have a hidden boss on the final floor. Like hunters, dungeons were also ranked from A to F; with rank A being the highest and F being lowest. When I first woke up, I thought it was an E ranked dungeon. After all, goblins only appear inside E and F ranked dungeons. However, this notion was corrected when I found the secret chamber that led to the hobgoblin.

I was yet to be sure of the rank of this dungeon, it was very strange and held many secrets.

…

“Lord, I have talked with the Orc leader. They agreed to meet us together with that person, but they wanted the meeting location to be outside of our habitat.” As expected! That mysterious leader was a highly intelligent monster. It must have consumed too many humans or other intelligent species to gain some intelligence. However, I wasn’t worried. Even if it was intelligent, I was a bona fide human before becoming a monster. I have seen countless schemes and even experienced one that ultimately claimed my life as a human being. I was not afraid of some intelligent species. I decided to proceed with my plan.

A smile broke on my face as I thought; ‘soon you will be under my grasp’.

That monster must have thought it already won, but I will have a nasty surprise waiting. Ultimately, it will have no other choice but to bow down to me.

“Good.” I smiled and prepared to leave, “Let's go immediately.” We walked through the chaos-filled goblin habitat. Destroyed clearing, half-buried caves, and hole with blood splotches, all this was the proof of the massacre that happened not long ago. It was a good thing that not all goblins were affected by this strange phenomenon.

Urt arranged an entourage of more than two hundred powerful goblins enhanced by my potions as we marched toward where our enemy was waiting. They were actually my special force on whom I had spent some effort. These goblins were strong, ruthless, and emotionless. A formless killing intent was radiating from their eyes, a testament of their capability. When a sword could be called sharp? It was after grinding against a whetstone. These goblins, after drinking my potion, all became swords, but they didn’t have the sharpness. It was only after a battle did they become shaper.

Their battle against orcs, invading humans in the past, and the powerful monsters beside that Hobgoblin, all of them contributed to the formation of this strong army. They were supposed to protect me in case things go south. I am about to meet a monster who could control even these powerful and somewhat intelligent orcs, I couldn’t not bring them out.

I signaled the two goblins on both sides of the main entrance, who were throwing dead bodies into a pit every so often. This pit was filled with a dense and odorless purple liquid. This pit was the source of the purple smog surrounding our habitat, and preventing Orcs from attacking for so long. The liquid within the pit was one of my creations. The purple liquid contained millions of small microorganisms I created using my extensive knowledge as an alchemist, and a skill I obtained after becoming Goblin Chemist.

Rearrange was a skill that allowed me to rearrange any composition down to their genetic sequence. Using it, I messed around with the corpse-eating maggots and created this purple liquid. I named the microorganisms inside it as Flesh Eaters because that’s what they do. These microorganisms only attack and devour flesh. They do not affect other things. They couldn’t even survive a few minutes outside this purple liquid without coming in contact with flesh.

The two goblins stopped throwing corpses into the pit. Within a few minutes, the smog dissipated, revealing the spectacle beyond. I saw the orcs standing straight while forming a neat line. They looked equally aggressive as my special troops, but held a definitive sharpness that goblins lacked. Then, I saw the orc whom I attacked not long ago. He was standing in front of the lined orcs with one hand holding an ax.

But that didn’t surprise me as much as the monster standing beside him. It had a devilish appearance with midnight-black skin, pupilless red eyes, and a long leathery tail with trident shaped tip.

‘A Dream Weaver?’ I exclaimed in surprise.