Two hours after sunrise, inside a dark room, deep in the mountain, a creature laid on the groud, covered with a blanket.

The creature was Robur, my named minion.

"Morning Boss!" He shouted with pride.

(Good morning Robur, but keep it low, the cubs are still sleeping.)

Rising from his bed, Robur realised his mistake and whispered.

"Sorry Boss, Orders?"

(Eat and prepare to move out.)

Robur nodded and proceed to the food storage.

"Boss, do I go to same direction?" Robur asked his master as he kept eating slime, one by one.

(No, yesterday we explored the right direction of the end of the mountain path, today, you must go to the left as the previous one might have a higher chance of brown wolf encounters.)

"Boss, not worries! Robur can kill brown mutts!" He said with pride while punching his chest.

(Forget it. You might beat two, maybe three at the same time, but if they move in big groups like the one of yesterday, it will be impossible, unless you can promise me that you can beat 20 wolves on your own?)

"No Boss, too many..." The goblin said as he made a sad face.

(For now, lets just explore, perhaps we might find more gray wolves to increase our ranks.)

"Yes Boss!" Again, Robur punched his chest, giving a big smile.

As he finished his meal, Robur walked to the exit, meeting up with the level 4 Imp and descended the mountain path.

Then, Robur paused at the end of the path.

"Boss, Robur goes left?" Robur asked me while pointing to the left.

(Yes.)

While the party kept moving throughout the forest, following the sea of trees, covered in snow, with no animals or creatures on sight, the cubs back at home woke up, ate breakfast and returned to take a nap.

(Robur, do you know how long a mutt cub need to grow up?)

"Robur don't know that."

(Well, I expect it doesn't take too long.)

Suddenly Robur stood still and asked me.

"Boss, can you hear that?"

From the distance, the party could hear small, tiny squeak sounds.

(Wait a moment, yes, whats that noise? I can barely hear it.)

"Goblins fighting!" Robur shouted, releasing a big smile.

(Keep going forward with precaution!)

"Yes, Boss!" Robur took out his daggers from his belt while the Imp grabbed his pickaxe.

After walking 10 more minutes, in the middle of the forest, with the sounds increasing by the minute, the party reached its destination.

On the snow, a clash of goblins was ongoing, four of them already were dead on the ground, a group of 3 goblins with a level 3 goblin, while the others were level 2.

The second group had 4 level 1 goblins and 2 level 4 goblins, outnumbering the enemy two to one.

Their weapons were all simple big chunks of wood used as clubs.

As Robur took one more step, the two groups took a few steps back, they noticed that they were not alone anymore as goblin and an Imp came forward.

One of the level 4 goblins stared at Robur and 2 level 1 goblins took a step forward.

He rose his weapon and shouted as he pointed towards his new target.

"You strong, you join Goblin Boss of Maktraka Clan!"

The 2 level 1 goblins kept getting closer towards Robur.

"Robur has Big Red Boss! Puny Maktraka Clan trash!"

The level 4 goblin paused for a bit, then pointed at the Red Imp.

"Big Red Boss? Puny Red trash!"

"This not Big Red Boss! He bigger than orcs! You no trash my Boss!"

Immediately Robur threw one of his daggers at the first goblin and rushed towards the second one.

At the same time, the Red Imp who was mocked by the level 4 goblin was covered in black tattoos and ran towards this same enemy.

Within seconds, one goblin died with a dagger wich was threw into his chest, the second goblin had his throat cut open by Robur.

Goblin Robur has reached level 5!

I possessed my Imp, decided to kill this goblin who spoke ill of me.

"Trash this!" I screamed at the goblin, swinging my pickaxe into him.

"You..." The goblin took a step back, the speed of the Imp and the possession skill I had used made him scared.

Trying to defend himself, he rose his club, trying to use it as a shield against the pickaxe.

But it was of no use as the pickaxe simply pierced the club, breaking it into pieces and following nonstop into the goblin's forehead.

Imp has reached level 5!

The remained goblins stared at my possessed Imp and Robur, then looked at the 3 goblin group.

Afraid of now being outnumbered, the goblins ran away as fast as they could.

(Talk with those three.) I ordered Robur as I canceled my possession spell.

"Yes, Boss!" Robur spoke while he picked up his dagger from the chest of the dead enemy and walked towards the group.

"You! Stop!" One of the level 2 goblins shouted towards Robur.

"Clan?" The level 3 asked Robur, curious about who would fight Maktraka Clan in Maktraka territory.

"Me lost my clan! Now Robur follow Big Red Boss! Mighty Boss! Bigger than orc!" He proclaimed, punching his chest.

The goblin group stood still and silent as their leader was thinking what to do.

After giving it some thoughts, he let out a sigh of relief and exchange a few whispers his two comrades.

Upon reaching a decision the group looked at Robur and the Imp.

"Thank you, good goblin, want to visit our nest? Me speak with elder to welcome you and red demon!"

"Boss?" (Robur)

(Go with them.)

Robur nodded towards the goblin group and they guided the two newcomers throughout the forest.

It took 2 hours, but soon they reached a mountain cave.

Several level 1 goblins stood guard at the entrance, some were holding clubs while others simply had rocks in their hands.

They did not trouble Robur and the Imp as they were being guided by their higher level brothers.

Upon entering, more goblins appeared on our sight, they were spread out inside the cave, some of them locked their eyes on the hunting party that had returned, walking behind them, a new goblin and red demon could be seen accompanying them.

But most goblins inside did not even had the strength to look the group, unlike Robur and the Imp, wich had a round belly and strong arms, this goblin nest was full of weak and skinny members.

"They starve..." Robur mumbled.

(Thats normal, from what we have seen, theres pretty much only trees, rock and snow on this land, before you were with me, what did you guys eat?)

"Animal meat, pink skin meat, random fruit?" Robur informed me.

Following the goblins, Robur's group reached the end of the cavern, a level 6 goblin sat on the ground, this one had a long white beard wich felt weird to me, as all other goblins had no beards and were bald.

The level 3 goblin ran towards him and whispered him a few sentences.

Upon hearing the goblin, he touched his beard as his eyes mainly focused on the Imp.

After a few nods with his head, the three goblin sat next to their elder while he waved his hand and spoke with a smile.

"Please, guests sit, thank you, you saved my kin, tell me, what brings you into these lands?"

Robur and the Imp sat right in front of the elder.

"Boss told me to explore, and Robur explores!" Robur shouted as he punched his chest.

The elder raised his eyebrow. "Your Boss that Red demon?"

"No! Big Red Boss is mighty! Bigger than orc!" He proudly informed the elder.

The elder touched his long beard and asked.

"Where your Boss? He know you here?"

"Ahaha! Boss no need be here, he see and he hear, from Robur and red demon! Boss command reach us!" Robur told the elder.

"Your Boss is strong..." The elder told Robur upon hearing that last sentence.

(Ask them why they are fighting that other clan.)

"Boss asks why you fight Maktraka Clan!"

The goblin elder raised his eyebrow again and let out a sigh as he heared Robur's question.

"Long story, new Goblin Boss appeared, killed my son former Boss, then we exiled." The elder spoke with to us with grieve and continue with his story.

Apparently the Maktraka Clan was a big goblin clan, the territory we were in being a free to neutral land established by the Maktraka Clan and the Brown wolfpack who bordered each other.

When the previous goblin Boss perished, the Maktraka Clan broke the agreement and started a war with the brown wolves.

At first this war was a tie between the two factions, wich allowed for the elder and his closest goblins to establish a new home, hidden well from their enemies, but for some reason, suddenly the brown wolves started to fall back over the last days, wich caused the current Maktraka warriors to run rampant and kill or capture the elders hunting parties along with any food they had hunted.

This situation caused the elder's group to lose two-thirds of his followers, now only 27 goblins remained on this nest and most were either weak younglings, females, babies or wounded.

"Now, we starve or die by Maktraka hunters..."

Upon hearing the elder's story, I wondered what to do, currently it seemed that I had 2 major enemy factions, the brown wolves to my right side and the goblin Maktraka clan to my left side.

The reason the brown wolves had retreated was probably because of the Gray wolves and now that they were defeated with the exception of my 5 cubs, as long as I remain hidden, I assumed they would fight again the Maktraka Clan.

At least I could be happy to know that these 2 were hostile to each other and that perhaps in the future I could take an advantage of that.

And even if they found out about the death of the brown wolf hunting party that we encountered yesterday, there was a high chance that they would blame it on the Maktraka Clan.

(It seems that they had a hard life, Robur, ask them what they plan to do next.)

"Yes, Boss" The named goblin noded his head and then locked his eye on the elder.

"Elder, Boss asks what you do next?" He inquired the Elder.

The elder goblin looked back at Robur, closed his eyes while massaging his beard and started mumbling.

"We stay? We be hunted by Maktraka, we leave? Maktraka and Brow mutts give chase..."

Then his eyes suddenly opened as he thought of something.

"Your Boss, can help?" The Elder asked Robur.

Robur looked at the Elder Goblin, having other goblins asking for his help gave him pride and happiness, but still, he knew that the decision wasn't his to make.

"Me ask Boss, wait for answer!" He told the Elder. "Boss, can you help?"

(Let me think.)

"Yes, Boss! We wait." Robur shouted and punched his chest, with this action. The three goblins turned their gaze upon the elder, afterwards he signaled the three to be calm and wait for my answer.

I started to think on what to do, of course, the first thing I wanted as I saw the three goblins guiding Robur and my Imp to their nest, was to recruit them.

But I had some disappointment on some of their loyalty, besides the elder and the three goblins that had 70 loyalty wich is acceptable, the rest was different, I saw a sizeable number with 60 and 65, but at least half of them were between 50 and 55 loyalty.

And if I recruit all those above 50? Blue told me to recruit minions on 60 loyalty, but I could take the risk considering it could increase upon giving them protection, shelter and food.

(Maybe I should only recruit those of 60 and above, but would they leave their family? What if I promised to protect everyone? No, thats, not possible, if ever they would be under attack, it would take a while to send help.)

Also, I wanted to keep the my minion's movement to a minimum.

Then I reminded of the ratmen's nest.

(Ah! Thats it! Relocation!)

(Robur, I reached my decision, tell exactly to the goblin elder you hear from me and if he does not agree, leave and return home at once.)

"Yes Boss!" Robur punched his chest with joy, causing the other four goblins to tremble a bit, it was clear that they were nervous.

"Elder, list to Robur, Robur say Big Red Boss suggestion!" He shouted to the goblins.

The elder goblin raised an eyebrow and spoke. "Yes, we hear your Boss suggestion."

Day 2, 1st Month of the Winter Season, 600.AC