Goblins. Goblins were staple monsters in any fantasy world. Whether it was a story about middle Earth, about Isekai, or even in the typical fantasy games. And because of their popularity, it seemed there were people categorized Goblins into several ranks.

The lowest rank, Goblins. Goblins had the most numbers amongst other monsters. However, their ability was similar to the average people in this world, individually. In one on one fight, even a typical farmer could defeat a Goblin. If the farmer was lucky. However, Goblins tended to group, however, and that made them dangerous. Goblins lacked intelligence, so it was easy to trap them.

The rank above normal Goblins was called Goblins Soldiers. This category could be separated into three sub-categories, called Goblins Warrior, Goblins Mage, and Goblins Archer. They were capable of using weapons and they had basic skills of using those weapons. Their intelligence was almost similar to the average ten years old human kid.

A rank above them, there was Hobgoblin. They were the elite of the Goblins and they were capable of using multiple weapons. Also, they were skilled enough to fight C-Rank Adventurers in a one-on-one duel for some time.

Above Hobgoblins, there was the Goblin General. They led an army of Goblins and their ability was similar to that of B-Rank Adventurers. However, their main ability was in leading the Goblins and once a Goblin General was found, the Empire would move its army to subjugate it.

And the highest rank known for a Goblin was Goblin King. It was a catastrophe level monster, similar to a Dragon. No, it was even more dangerous than a Dragon, even though it was weaker than a Dragon. Its danger was in the fact whenever it appeared, it would cause a lot of victims, from humans, Beast-kins and Demi-humans. Goblins lived only to cause destruction to everything after all. And with a King led them, the destruction it caused became even more severe.

It was advisable to send the army and asked the allied nations to send their army too because Goblin King wouldn’t stop before destroying everything. Their number would increase exponentially if they were not stopped as soon as possible.

However, unknown to most humans, there was another Goblin that even more dangerous than a Goblin King. It was the Goblin Emperor. If a Goblin King led the Goblins to destroy everything, the Goblin Emperor would lead its kins to the greatness. They would build a country and this country wouldn’t be defeated easily. Even a strong Empire like Acrodia couldn’t easily destroy the country built by the Goblin Emperor, if not possible at all.

Unlike Goblin King, Goblin Emperor knew how to hold itself back. Goblin King was driven by its instinct to destroy everything, however, Goblin Emperor could control its instinct. It knew when to attack and when to defend. It knew the best strategy to deal with other races. It was comparable to a genius Emperor of human after all, so, unless the Emperor of human was a similar genius, it would be advisable for humans not to attack Goblin Emperor recklessly.

The higher rank Goblins didn’t appear from evolving from the lowest rank Goblins. It was not that easy for a Goblin Emperor to appear in this world. There were a lot of prerequisites for a Goblin Emperor to appear in this world.

First, and the most important, a Goblin could evolve into a higher rank if they were born from strong people. For example, Goblins could be created from the Dungeon, and if they trained well, they could become Goblin Soldiers. However, that was their limit. There was no way for them to be a Hobgoblin in their whole life.

A Goblin that was born from a weak human, Demi-human, and Beast-kins had a chance to be a Hobgoblin. The chance was low, however. Anyway, there was a chance. The stronger the mother, the higher the chance of the Goblins to reach a higher rank.

It was said that a Goblin King could only appear if the mother was at Champion or a Hero class. That was why the chance of a Goblin King to appear in this world was extremely low. As for Goblin Emperor, it would only happen if the mother was a Goddess, so, it should be impossible for it to happen. At least, normally speaking, it should be impossible. I didn't know a lot about it too though.

But it was happening right now. That meant, a Goddess had become a victim of Goblins, and if we didn’t save that Goddess, another Goblin Emperor might appear again and again. However, we didn’t know which Goddess was captured and we didn’t even know where she was. As for asking the Goblin Emperor in this Dungeon, perhaps it would forcefully take me rather than I asked him the question.

Speaking of which, even though we lost our power, the fact was that our body constitution didn't change at all. Just like how a human didn't become something lesser when they lost their power, the Gods and Goddesses didn't change too. So, even without our power, if a Goblin impregnated a Goddess, there was a chance that the kid would be a Goblin Emperor.

The Goblin Emperor in this Dungeon was building its strength. It knew how to use Dungeon, but fortunately, it didn’t know how to use the powerful Golems inside this Dungeon. If it knew, well, there was no way the Goblin Emperor would stay in defensive.

Anyway, at this moment, I was in a precarious situation. I never thought that all the Goddesses were silly. Yep, the Goddess of Magic, Magie, sent me right beside the silly Goddess. That meant, she sent me into the middle of the Goblins, and there were even several Hobgoblins in this place. I was almost captured, but fortunately, I was fast enough to use Smokeless Breath and transformed it into a fire before I retreated to the ceiling hastily.

Honestly, the Goblins were scary! They were able to see in the dark, but I couldn’t. The Dungeon was pitch dark and I couldn’t see anything at all… was not right. I could see countless pairs of eyes in the darkness, and they were looking for me. I used the Smokeless Slime to hide better, so no Goblins found me yet.

As for the silly Goddess, putting aside the fact that her clothes were in a rag, she was safe at the moment. She was a Goddess of Ice after all, and she was quite proficient in using ice, so it was easy for her to use eternal Ice to protect her body and she hibernated inside that ice. She should be safe for a long time, unlike me, who was definitely in danger.

Now then, what should I do? I was inside a Dungeon, and I didn’t know which way the exit and which way the way to the Dungeon Core. It was built like a maze, I believed. And it was far more complicated than the Dungeon in Acropolis. I couldn’t sense the difference of Mana concentration on this floor at all, so I couldn’t guess which way was the exit and which was the entrance. I wanted to ask for help by using sound transmission… but it was not something that I could do. I could only use mental communication with my Familiars, but the range was limited.

I sighed as I thought that I was trapped in this predicament. I silently moved away from the room the silly Goddess covered herself in ice. It was better for me to move alone rather than with the silly Goddess after all. As for what I was going to do… was there any other choice besides walking randomly in this place?

…nope, there was no other choice. And also, I needed to find food. I couldn’t live without food after all, but in a Dungeon like this, I doubted I could find edible food. I meant, for humans, not for Goblins. Goblins could even eat rotten food after all. Yep, they were really a creature that was similar to the cockroach.

Speaking of which, my level was raised quite a lot since I lived in the Dungeon. Let’s see, it’s been a long while since I looked at my status window. I was kinda excited now.

Name

Fanarie D. Darriskha

Age

13 (?)

Race

Human (?)

Class

Newbie Witch

Level

24

STR

7

AGI

7

DEX

9

INT

9

VIT

8

WIL

7

Innate Talent

Charisma

…I had to scream in desperation after seeing my status, right? Right?

Why didn’t they change!!!???

My level increased by twenty points, but my status increased only by a few points! It didn’t make any sense at all!

I sighed dejectedly. It seemed I would be weak in my whole life. Well, my Skills were quite useful though.

So, I had four Skills from the level up. In level 5, I got the [Smokeless Breath]. And then I got the [Materialize] at level 10. At level 15, I got [Enchant: Fire]. Level 20, I got [Enchant: Poison]. And by the way, [Enchant] could only affect my [Smokeless Breath]. So, I could change the element of my breath into fire and poison.

…do I have bad breath? It was not the question I want to hear at all...

I didn’t know why but I was so sad, seeing my status and Skills like that. The System was definitely unfair. Yep, it was a crappy System!

Moreover, I had to be careful whenever I used [Enchant] to my [Smokeless Breath]. Because even though I could breathe fire, it didn’t make me fire-proof. Well, my armor was fire-proof, but my armor didn’t have a function of poison-proof, so I had to be careful not to inhale the poison I breathed.

I wondered whether my poison breath would be useful in this situation or not, but I didn’t want to try it now. I was not the type of person that would try new Skill in a dangerous situation like this after all. If I could kidnap a single Goblin, brought it to an isolated location, I would do the experiment on it, but no, I wouldn’t do that.

By the way, I didn’t know how much knowledge the Goblin Emperor had about the Dungeon Core. I only knew that the Goblin Emperor was capable to make the Dungeon produce Goblins. If it knew other functions such as looking for intruders, well, me hiding in a place like this wouldn’t do me good. I needed to get out of this Dungeon as soon as possible.

But it seemed the Dungeon Master was still a newbie in Dungeon management. After all, I was walking in its dungeon for almost half an hour, and yet, it didn’t order its Goblins to capture me. Or perhaps it was trying to trap me? It led me into a trap, didn’t it?

Seriously, I lacked information about the Dungeon Master. I only guessed that it was a Goblin Emperor because of its tendency. A Goblin King wouldn’t use a Dungeon skillfully after all.

The fact that I lacked information caused me to be dejected…

…

I hated the darkness. Especially, the darkness that hid the vicious Goblins behind it. Also, I was getting hungry now. Should I eat Goblin’s meat? Well, Goblins were monsters, so it was not an act of cannibalism, right? After all, it was normal for people to eat monsters’ meat.

My mind wandered randomly. Perhaps because of the darkness. Or perhaps because of something else. But it seemed I couldn’t focus at all. Oh, did I make a turn earlier? It was too dark. I didn’t know where I was. I needed food. I needed water. If only I could use teleportation Magic, I would return to my own Dungeon now. Ah, annoying, I wanted to go home!

Hm? Is that a Goblin? Alone? Is it my chance?

Before I knew it, I already ordered my Slime Armor's tentacles to move to that Goblin. I snapped its neck without sound, and it died soundlessly. I pulled it to my position and absorbed it into the Smokeless Slime’s body… alright, it didn’t do anything to alleviate my hunger at all.

Do I really have to eat Goblin’s meat?

I used [Smokeless Breath] and [Enchant: Fire] on the Goblin’s body and made a charred Goblin. When I ate it, however…

“…it tastes like sand,” I complained. With every bite, I felt like eating sand, or perhaps charcoal. It was too dark, I couldn’t see whether it was well done, raw, medium, or overcooked. Well, estimating from the taste, it must be overcooked, even though I only cooked it for less than five seconds.

…seriously, I wanted something delicious. I wanted to eat bread, rice, corn, sago, wheat… why did I only think about carbohydrates? Perhaps because I was too hungry to think. Oh, if that were the case, shouldn’t I eat sugar?