After about thirty minutes, Lariel was standing on the hill on the third floor where the door to the second was located. The columns of smoke, still present on the horizon. Eight. You could see the lack of trees in that locations. After glaring around a bit, Lariel looked at his map. The door to the fourth floor was to his front, between two goblin villages.

He was going to follow his roommates. Not because he wanted to steal from them, but because he wanted to protect them in case something went wrong. He had no illusions that he could kill anything in this and the next floor. Only the Hob Warlord gave him pause. It could reach level 75. If Lariel could kill him, he imagined he could reach level 30.

But he wasn't going to do so. He started walking towards the next door, soon entering the forest and facing goblins. He slaughtered them all with his new spear. The work of Haldor, the owner of 'Fiery Anvils'. It was a beautiful spear, and although it lacked enchantments or runes, it was his spear. Made of Mana Steel, so that he could channel Mana through it without worrying that much about damaging it. His previous one had some flaws due to the intensive Heavy Blows of the previous training, and so, he went to pick his spear up.

Luckily, Haldor had already finished with it once he had arrived, and gave him the spear, remembering him of his deal. He had gone to the guild before that and sold his goblin parts, earning himself 34 silver and 25 coppers. This time around he had only brought tongues. He killed all the goblins that showed up, and it was quicker and easier to cut the tongues only. They also sold for higher prices. This time around, the guild worker did not make the same mistake and asked him to put them into a bucket, that she kept emptying. No gore involved.

He continued killing goblins until he reached the door. There they were. Nine kids fighting against the goblins, and to Lariel's surprise, the goblins were losing.

Before he had learned to control the wind and gained his huge amount of stats, he might have been overwhelmed by them. But now, he could kill them easily with the controlled wind. Just slit their throats. He had lost a few mana, stamina, and health coming here, so while hiding, he culled their number a bit, actually not just a bit, since he went to the nearest village and slaughtered the two-hundred so goblins that were there. There were no HobGoblins there for him, probably having gone to the fight at the door, so the exp wasn't enough. But he was close.

Level: 21

Current Life Liquid quantity: 364

Current Rejuvenating Fluid quantity: 947

Current Liquid Mana quantity: 194

He went back to the door and found that the party had split up into two. Each fighting a Hob Goblin. Kan and Ezekiel were on one side, while Ivan was on the other.

They eventually won, after five more minutes. Lariel had considered helping them, but he did not want to be accused of stealing their XP. And so he waited.

When the Hobgoblins were dead, the party quickly went to the door and left to the fourth floor while pushing the remaining Goblins back.

Lariel did not want to follow them right away, so he busied himself. Killing the remaining 300 or so goblins, and netting himself no XP at all. He gained virtually no XP with these kills, after all, he was used to the Goblins and knew their weak points. The XP requirements were getting ridiculous. He really needed to go to the next layer.

He waited another two minutes before going to the fourth floor. Again, it looked like the other, but even bigger, and with more smoke columns. You could clearly see that there were some settlements bigger than others by the lack of trees in the area, signifying the presence of a Hob Captain. The door to the fifth floor this time was to the back, instead of the front. And curiously, it was smacked right inside a quadruple Goblin village. Some adventurers had obviously killed the present goblins when passing through, but now, being night, there weren't that many adventurers passing by, and the ones that were, were the newbies, clearly incapable of dealing with three Hobgoblins and one Hob Captain.

In this one, Lariel might need to intervene. But for now, he wouldn't. He saw them entering the forest, heading towards the next door and decided to enter the forest a bit farther away. Again, he used the wind to kill the approaching goblins with minimal noise. The kills, able to keep his health and stamina to the max, but mages weren't that frequent so near to the open plains.

After a while, he caught up to them. They moved in a diamond formation. Kan, Helen, and Carla in the middle. Ivan at the front. Ezekiel scouting, and the rest forming the so-called diamond around the central three.

In this situation, it was better to use this formation in comparison to the arrow one, due to the fact that these forests were goblin-infested, and those goblins could appear from anywhere.

They had a few skirmishes along the way but soon arrived at the combined village. If it could be called a village.

There were already wood walls in the form of spikes circling the area. Goblin patrols walking around. The scent of leather and other materials used to craft weapons and armors filled the air.

It was impressive how goblins worked. Lariel had read in the library that they got more intelligent depending on their leader. If their leader was a Hobgoblin, then they would create a small village. If the leader was a Hob Captain, a town emerged, along with crafting and goblin workers. There were records of whole cities in some dungeons ruled by Goblin Warlords. Powerful enough that they needed Platinum parties to clear them, facing off against armies of Hob Goblins.

But this town was relatively undeveloped. Very likely due to the fact that an overpowerful adventurer party had trashed this place when leaving, not bothering to finish up the goblins.

The party of nine stayed at the border between the trees and the clearing. Lariel heard them discussing what to do, and soon after they were strolling towards the village, in an arrow formation. Kan for his turn started spamming fireballs towards the center of the village, and soon there was chaos.

First, it was just a trickle of them, but then there were more and more, till it became a flood of goblins. To their credit, the party was holding up. Spells flow from side to side, and some of the party's attacks killed tens of goblins at a time. But they were being slowly overwhelmed.

Just before Lariel decided to intervene, he heard a shout 'Duck'! And the party ducked. Right in the middle, Kan stayed standing. Lariel understood why, less than a second after. A wave of flames erupted from him, killing every goblin in a circle of 50 meters in diameter. Hundreds. Dead in a single second.

Lariel was amazed. Kan had done it. They were heading towards the door. Passing through the palisade, entering enemy territory. Only a few more meters away, killing the remaining goblins that were not scared enough to run. And then they appeared. Three Hobgoblins and one Hob Captain.

Lariel could hear horns. Reinforcements were not long away. They needed to get out of there fast. And the closest exit was the fifth-floor door.

The Hobgoblins launched themselves towards the party immediately. The party, presumably having planned this, split. Ivan and Kan stayed together. Kan not looking very good, probably due to having spent a huge amount of mana on that spell.

The remaining seven were split into three groups. Two of two and one of three. Ezekiel was on the one of three. Lariel understood their strategy immediately. Kan and Ivan would delay the Hob Captain, while the two teams of two would delay one Hobgoblin watch, and the team where Ezekiel was would kill their Hobgoblin, and then help the others so that they could face the Hob Captain as one.

After a while, everything was going great. The first Hobgoblin had died, and Ezekiel's team was already moving towards the second, the normal Goblins having all fled from the too-powerful figures. And then the Hob Captain moved forward. Ivan did so too, preparing his shield and his sword. They could probably have pulled it out and reached the door in a swift operation, had the Hob Captain and the three Hobgoblins not been there.

The Hob Captain just rammed into Ivans tired shield. Instantly pushing him away, and continuing his path towards the tired Kan. The target just lifted his hand. Mana Bolts, Mana Arrows, Fire Spells, Water, Earth, even roots sprouted from the ground. All coming out of his left hand towards the Hob Captain, that just tanked the damage.

Kan was getting increasingly more desperate. And when Lariel was already getting ready to jump into the fray, an arrow pierced the Hob Captains' skull, and he dropped dead.

So... anti-climatic...

Lariel had missed where the arrow had come from, but that wasn't important. Ezekiel's team cleared the remaining Hobgoblins with swift movements, and they rapidly made their move towards the fifth floor. Kan was patting Helen's back, who was beaming with happiness, while Carla seemed furious.

Apparently, Helen had been the one to kill the Goblin Captain. No small honor.

Lariel once again waited for five minutes, in which the goblins that had sounded the horns appeared. Three-thousand strong.

This is going to be a feast... Lariel thought while readying himself.

---

Ten minutes later and with one thousand dead goblins on the floor, Lariel was panting. The remaining had run, either too scared or hurt by Lariel's wild attacks.

*Ding* Your class Seeker of Power has reached level 22 +3 End, Int; +1 Will, Per, Vit; +5 Free Stats!

Most of that level's XP was given generously by the four Hobgoblins stored inside Lariels storage ring, the other lesser goblins nothing more than fundings for his draining skills, which had not received any other amount of the corresponding liquids. All the gains having been moved towards keeping Lariel above the general 90%.

All in all, it was a good haul, giving Lariel more than enough skill levels to already make this trip worth it.

This was basically a training trip.

He entered the fifth floor and started running towards the next door. Checking for how long since he had left the dungeon. Four hours. They were getting close to the boss's respawn. This floor was just like the others, triple the size of the previous, which was for its turn double the size of the third, but no parties could be seen hanging around, it was already past midnight, so it was comprehensible.

Lariel was running through the forest because the next door was a long way from the door to the fourth floor. This door was not in the goblin-dominated territory, but the fastest route passed through 3 goblin villages, one of each was double, which meant a Hob Captain. Lariel wasn't worried about that, because they had managed to defeat the other hob captain that had double the strength of this one. The more villages there were combined, the more powerful the Hob Captain was.

Time passed by, and Lariel continued to run, his Stamina never-ending when your Running skill reduced the stamina cost by 30%. That, combined with his regeneration, made it so that he did not spend Stamina, but also did not gain any.

After what seemed like an eternity, but his Perfect Timing skill told him was thirty minutes, Lariel arrived at the fighting. They were in the combined goblin village. Ezekiels three-man team was facing the HobGoblin, while the remaining were facing the Hob Captain. Although this Hob Captain was weaker, it was also smarter, because there was a Hob Warlord on this floor.

Despite the obvious fact that the party was going to win this fight, the mood was low, as such, Lariel searched for the source of this. And what he saw, managed to send shivers down his spine.

The Hob Warlord was there. Just watching, sitting on a chair, intelligence gleaming in its eyes. Its head was supported by its fist, which was in turn supported by his arm, with its elbow on the arm of the chair.

It was just watching the fight. Smiling. Not intervening at all, watching the Hobgoblin getting killed, and the Hob Captain getting overwhelmed and soon after killed.

Once the Captain's head hit the ground, the Warlord got up and laughed.

"Punny humans, you have done me a favor. Thank you for eliminating the weaklings of my breed" it said, laughing even more. The party for its turn just regrouped, planning.

"For that favor, I will kill you fast, making your suffering minor," after those words, the goblin threw himself at a speed that Lariel had only been able to accomplish after the previous training session.

Ivan was the only fast enough to react, yelling 'Flee' to the others while putting up his shield. On impact, Ivan was sent flying into a nearby tree but managed to stop the goblin momentum.

His party did anything but flee. They started throwing everything at the goblin. The warriors moving forward and encircling it. Helen and Carla threw arrows at it, while Kan threw spells. Nothing worked because the goblin dodged it all while avoiding the swords and hammers of the warriors, and sending one flying, to go join Ivan that was panting on his knee.

Lariel waited. The party had surprised him on multiple occasions until now, and they had another advantage on their side. Leveling. They had killed many goblins, and Lariel had the impression that most were reaching level 20, if not having already reached, where they would receive their second batch of class skills.

They continued to gang up on the Hob Warlord, not allowing it to attack any of their party members. The Warlord, for his turn, dodged everything with its slender body and presumably high agility.

It was when Ivan rejoined the fight that the flow of the fight turned to the party's favor. Ivan rushed forward, his shield in front of him. And then he dashed.

Lariel saw it, but could barely accompany him, if not for his high perception. The speed of the dash was absurd, and Lariel took one conclusion from it. Ivan had reached level 20 and gained his class skills.

The goblin, too slow to do anything, took the shield right in its face, getting squashed under the force. Lariel heard bones breaking from where he was.

After that hit, it was only a matter of time. With the Hob Warlord disorientated, it was so easy that Lariel was getting bored. It suffered strike after strike, eventually falling to the ground. Dead.

Immediately, a wave of force emerged from the deceased Hob Warlord, pushing everything away. Lariel of course, knew what it was. All goblins on this floor would be dead in a matter of seconds.

The party started... partying. All began to laugh and cheer. Congratulating themselves, while Lariel watched them all. Well, not all. There was one mis-

The missing person entered his Perception Ball, and he barely had any time to react before a dagger passed on the place where his neck had been. He threw himself away, far from the reach of a dagger, or any sword for the matter of fact. His jumping power surprised even him, and he found himself next to the party of his roommates.

Silence fell. All eyes were on him.

Fuck was Lariel's last thought before mayhem followed.