Ian’s vision focused as he noticed the five goblins returning through the transfer formation. As they approached his core, he asked, “Where’s Yervin?”

“Not coming,” murmured Narcy.

“He says that my lord didn’t say anything about him having a rank up, so he would continue practicing until all of us had our ranks ups and were provided with personal rooms,” grunted Mina angrily, “I understand training can be fun, but he should heed your words.”

“I know you’re mad at him, Mina, but what he said did make sense,” Izu consoled her while rubbing her back.

Botan simply stated, “I liked the way he was smiling.”

Behind the four of them Pugi was muttering to herself, “Should I have stayed? I need the training. However, disobeying Ian and Mina doesn’t seem like a great idea.”

Ian was slightly concerned that Yervin may have disobeyed a direct order from him, but thinking back on what he had said, his words weren’t explicit orders.

“Alright then,” began Ian, “Let’s start with your rank ups. To determine the order we’ll play fire, water, earth.”

“What’s that?” they all asked.

They didn’t know that, but knew all the other things? Although, what reason would dungeon creatures need to know a children’s game.

“To play the game the participants all stand in a circle, or across from each other if there are only two participants, and on the count of three they place their hands in the center of the circle and create either fire, water, or earth. To win the game the magic you created must win out against the other participants magic. Each magic type wins against one other magic type and loses to the other. Fire beats earth but loses to water, earth beats water but loses to fire, water beats fire but loses to earth,” explained Ian, “Ready to play?”

“Wait,” interrupted Izu, “How would you win in a group of more than two people? It would be possible for all three types of magic to be played.”

“Right. Forgot about that, sorry,” apologized Ian, “In groups of more than three players, when all three magic types are played, the group with the most played magic type is eliminated. For example, two play fire, one plays earth, and one plays water. In that situation, the two who played fire would be eliminated. In groups of three the round is replayed until only two magic types are played.”

Izu and the rest nodded in understanding, and as Izu was about to ask another question, it clicked in Ian’s mind, “You guys don’t know how to make fire, water, and earth do you?”

The five shook their heads.

“Alright, you all did the mana manipulation and mana perception courses right?”

He received five nods. Admittedly he was surprised they all did it, especially Narcy.

Ian created a goblin body and inhabited it, “Okay, I’ll create each minor spell slowly, so use your mana perception to mimic me. These kinds of spells are considered lifestyle magic as they can easily be used without the appropriate skill.”

First was fire. The mana flickered through Ian’s arm until it reached his fingertips and condensed into a small flame.

Next was water. Mana rushed through his arm until it flowed outwards into a swirling ball of water.

Last was earth. Solidly and slowly mana proceeded through his arm until it piece by piece formed a square of earth.

“Can all of you replicate that now?” asked Ian.

“We will,” they answered back.

After a couple of minutes of trying to replicate what Ian showed them, Pugi asked, “Can you show us more than once?”

“Right that would help, wouldn’t it,” answered Ian as he started to create fire, water, and earth sequentially. However, soon after the time limit on his goblin ran out. While it was true creating goblins was relatively inexpensive, it still felt like a waste losing them after ten minutes.

“I’m going to try creating the minor spells without the aid of a body. Tell me if the creation of the magic is harder or easier to understand. I’ll also create one in front of each of you, so focus on that spell before moving onto the next.”

The group nodded their heads before attempting to mimic what Ian was creating in front of them.

Several minutes later, Pugi once again spoke up, “These are helpful, but only with the process of creating the fire. This doesn’t help me with moving the mana from inside my body to outside it. It also doesn’t help with changing the mana attribute.”

“Thanks for the input Pugi. I’ll go back to inhabiting a goblin body then,” said Ian.

Back in a goblin body Ian stated, “To speed up the process I’ll create spells at all eight of my fingertips and both my thumbs. Tell me if that makes it hard to focus on one.”

This continued on for half an hour before the first goblin succeeded. Izu successfully created a ball of water. It took two days before all of them could create all three magic types, although most of them were tiny sputtering things. During the two days, Yervin came to ask what was taking them so long and upon noticing the training they were doing joined in. He gave Ian’s core a glare before joining in, but Ian couldn’t blame him, he should have told him when they started training.

It was a lot of work simply to play a game for the order of rank up, but fire, water, earth was often used to help children learn the magic without them getting bored in the Soris Kingdom. As such, it was probably good for the goblins to learn it.

They finally began playing the game to determine rank up orders, and Yervin, the last to show up and the first to create all three magic types, went back to the learning room. After some intense matches, besides the first which had Narcy winning handily, the order was decided. Narcy was first, then Izu, Botan, Pugi, and Mina.

The last match between Pugi and Mina was quite the spectacle with it lasting an hour. Admittedly a spectacle in how bad they were at creating the magic types. Half the time they weren’t able to create any magic types and the other half the time it took them so long that one of them would notice what the other was making and try to counter resulting in a failed creation by both. The match resulting in Pugi’s victory was sly on her part. She mimicked his multi-magic. While one failed, the other succeeded and beat out Mina.

Mina seemed down in the dumps about losing the entire contest but Izu was comforting her. He reminded her that her forte was loyalty, leadership, and physical combat, not magic.

With the order out of the way, Ian began their rank ups, “Now, the first thing I have to tell you about your rank ups is that all of you have multiple options.”

The response he got was more lackluster than he expected.

Izu asked what was on the other goblin’s minds, “Is that good?”

“I’d definitely say it’s good, but the reason I brought it up is that so far when I’ve been evolving monsters there has only been one evolution option. Even the monsters that have ranked up without my interference have only had one option. So, you are the first monsters in my dungeon to have multiple options,” replied Ian, “Although, based on tamed monsters, when I was human, having multiple evolutionary options is normal.”

They all nodded in response, but they were slow nods of ‘we only kind of get what you’re saying’. Although, Mina’s slow nod was the equivalent of a normal nod for the others.

“Is something the matter?” asked Ian.

“No, nothing! That was very interesting, thank you Ian.” said Izu while waving his hands in front of himself.

He sighed to himself. It made sense why they didn’t find it as interesting as he did. They weren’t the ones seeing only one evolution options for nearly a year….wait, did Yervin’s choice between High Goblin and Hobgoblin count? Maybe, but that was more of a ‘do you want to be a hobgoblin or high goblin going forward?’ than a racial choice based on effort. Well, now that he started to think about it a little harder there may have been some monsters with multiple options, but they simply weren’t very interesting. Besides a couple choices didn’t change the fact that most of his choices were singular. After making excuses to himself, Ian returned to evolving the goblins.

“Okay, Narcy, you have two options: Goblin and Sleepy Goblin,” said Ian as he successfully showed the two windows to Narcy.

Name:

Narcy

Race:

Goblin

Rank:

E-

Gender:

Female

Attribute:

Neutral

Development:

0/100

Titles:

None

Skills

Stench

Tool Use

Bite

Scratch

Night Vision

Sleep

Mana Perception

Mana Manipulation

Description

Through nothing but sleep this goblin has gained the sleep skill. As they have done almost nothing else besides sleep, all that has increased is their stench and night vision skills. It is unlikely they will survive much longer.

Common Item Drops

E- mana heart

Goblin Ear

Her first option was barebones even by simple rank up without a race change standards. It was not surprising to Ian as she did nothing but sleep. Sleeping while not on the level of breathing was a basic bodily function. While focusing on bodily functions in the long run could produce unusual evolutions, in the short run the received evolutions offered very little.

Name:

Narcy

Race:

Sleepy Goblin

Rank:

D-

Gender:

Female

Attribute:

Sleep

Development:

0/100

Titles:

None

Skills

Stench

Tool Use

Bite

Scratch

Night Vision

Sleep

Sleep Vision

Sleep Endurance

Mana Perception

Mana Manipulation

Description

A goblin that has focused on sleeping most of their life can become a sleepy goblin. Due to the nature of sleep, it normally takes a long time for a goblin to achieve this evolution. For a goblin to spend most of their life sleeping and not have died requires an enhanced intelligence or a lot of luck. This goblin has not only spent most of their time sleeping, but also has a good grasp on what sleeping itself is. Understanding the benefits and negatives of sleep has allowed this goblin the ability to sleep anywhere and anytime they want. Beyond the ability to sleep anywhere, they have also gained the ability to see three hundred and sixty degrees and obtain increased damage reduction when asleep.Their sleeping habits along with a propensity to not bathe has resulted in a larger than normal increase to their stench skill.

Common Item Drops

D- mana heart

Goblin Rheum

The lackluster normal evolution was countered by the somewhat excessive Sleepy Goblin evolution. An increase of rank from F+ to D- was not normal, especially for someone who spent all their time sleeping. However, she was the only one besides Yervin that moved to the gym area rather than the classroom area. Based on this evolution, it was more likely that she finished and understood the lectures rather than took a break to sleep. It was an evolution without any direct offensive attacks, but the size of the perception sphere when asleep and the amount of damage that could be survived could greatly increase their information network, as long as that information could be shared.

As good as the Sleepy Goblin was, normally it would have a large negative aspect: the fact that it was D- rank. In the wild an increase from F+ to D- rank was good as it raised the individual’s ability to survive, but that also meant they missed out on the stat and skill gains from three rank ups. However, the way his dungeon creatures evolved were different compared to his tamed monsters. His dungeon creatures didn’t have a level but rather development with no obvious stat point gains. Even with full development his dungeon creatures could gain different evolutions, but at max level his tamed creatures would obtain no new evolutions no matter how hard they trained. Thus his tamed monsters as a human would receive an immediate power up if they increased from F+ to D- rank, but their power in the long run would suffer. The negative aspect of having a large increase in rank seemed to be diminished with dungeon creatures, but it might simply be that he wasn’t provided with all the information about his creatures.

“So, Narcy, which one do you want?” inquired Ian.

“Goblin,” respond Narcy with a flat voice.

Ian was stunned for a few moments before replying, “Why? It would generally be considered the much worse option.”

“It has a lower stench skill,” she pouted, “I already don’t like that I smell so much, and I’m going to smell worse when I rank up? This sucks.”

“Our evolutions won’t have an increase to the stench skill, right?” asked Mina and Izu with quivering voices. The other two, Botan and Pugi, didn’t seem to have a problem with the stench skill as they just shrugged their shoulders.

There was a short pause as Ian took in the fact that some of his goblins had a problem with smelling bad. It seemed he still had some prejudices to get rid of.

“I understand your reasoning, Narcy,” began Ian, “However, the Sleepy Goblin is a much better choice compared to the other evolution.”

“I don’t care. I simply don’t want to smell,” she said icily.

“If I could help with your stench skill, would you consider taking the Sleepy Goblin evolution?”

She gave a curt nod, “How?”

“The main cause of the stench skill increasing is bad hygiene, although your race is also a factor in that. But, I’ll prepare baths and other hygiene products, which as long as you use them continuously should slowly decrease your stench skill level. Ranking up after having continuously cleaned yourself will also increase the rate of decrease.”

After pondering for a bit, she asked, “If I increase my rank to D-, wouldn’t that mean I have less chances to decrease my stench skill?”

“You’re right, but even though choosing Goblin would give you more ranks, the negatives outweigh the time you would gain in losing your stench skill.”

“But, I’ll lose the stench skill faster, right? I want that one!” said Narcy with arms crossed.

“Let me explain the negatives to you first, Narcy. A one rank increase while staying the same race can be an average or good rank up, but it has to have good skill increases and continue in the direction of where the monster wants to go. However, yours is what we call a negative rank up. While it still provides skill increases and stat increases, they are far below a normal rank up. The minor description of the rank up always has something negative to say about the individual. Beyond having less skills and stats, these rank ups also heavily reduced the availability of future rank ups. Even if a monster stops being lazy, all the effort they put in afterwards is kicked to the side in favor of their past bad decisions. For someone who is diligent enough to do all or a lot of the lessons in the learning room, choosing the Goblin evolution is a bad decision.”

With her arms still crossed and a pout back on her face, she gave a curt nod in response to selecting Sleepy Goblin.

Before he could move on she asked him a question, “The others have evolutions with just as high of stench skills right?”

….He had really hoped she didn’t ask that question and didn’t want to ruin Mina’s and Izu’s hopes as they shook their heads back and forth rapidly in response to her question, “Sorry, Narcy, but no. They have normal stench skill increases.”

He had to hold his laughter back over the looks of complete and utter devastation on Mina’s and Izu’s face. He knew he should show sympathy for them, but their overreaction was too funny.

“Why?! They smell way worse than I do with all their exercising!”

“It has to do with how the system determines class acquisitions, race rank ups, and skill acquisitions,” said Ian with a much more serious voice than normal in an attempt to hide the building up laughter.

“What does that mean?” she asked with her eyes narrowing.

“Right,” Ian continued with a quickening pace, “while we don’t have a complete understanding of how the system works, it will sometimes place more importance on certain factors or a combination of certain factors. In reality, between two people that don’t bathe, the one that perspired more smells worse, but the system takes into the account the slovenly nature of the other individual and is more likely to increase their stench skill than the one that actually smells worse. In general, it is believed that conscious actions have a greater effect on class acquisitions, race rank ups, and skill acquisitions. This same reason is why it is usually so hard to get skills related to sleeping, breathing, eating, etcetera. Is that a good enough reason?” Ian gasped.

She didn’t look happy but responded, “Yes.”

“Okay, ready to evolve into a Sleepy Goblin now?”

All he received was a nod before beginning the evolution.

The normal green goblin transformed. Her eyes became droopy and perpetually half shut. Her entire body from arms to legs, body to head thinned out. Even with the thinned out appearance, she was a healthy weight for her average goblin size. The color of her skin became a darker green with a tint of blue.

“What do you think?” asked Ian as he created a mirror in front of her.

“I like it, but….I really wish I didn’t stink so damn much,” she snapped.

“I know, I know. Calm down a bit and be patient, Narcy. That’ll be one of the first things I do after everyone has been evolved.”

“All right,” she sighed, “I’ll be sleeping until then.”

With that Narcy laid down on the floor and started snoring.

“She doesn’t usually snore right after going to sleep,” muttered Ian, “Is it an effect of the evolution or did she do it on purpose?

“Right, Izu, you’re next,” he continued with a louder voice.

“Yes!” exclaimed Izu standing up straighter with his arms to his sides.

“Here are your options.”

Name:

Izu

Race:

Goblin

Rank:

E-

Gender:

Male

Attribute:

Neutral

Development:

0/100

Titles:

None

Skills

Stench

Tool Use

Bite

Scratch

Night Vision

Childcare

Mana Perception

Mana Manipulation

Mana Refinement

Water Magic

Description

This goblin has put effort and consideration into whatever they do. This rank up is but a stepping stone of their inevitable path.

Common Item Drops

E- mana heart

Goblin Ear

Unlike Narcy’s Goblin rank up, Izu’s was considered above average. There wasn’t an increases to his mana skills, his levels were entirely his own effort, but normal increases in levels for basic goblin skills and an increase to level four for tool use. If there had been increases for all skills, not simply goblins skills, the goblin rank up would have been considered optimal.

Name:

Izu

Race:

Goblin Apprentice Mage

Rank:

E-

Gender:

Male

Attribute:

Neutral

Development:

0/100

Titles:

None

Skills

Stench

Tool Use

Bite

Scratch

Night Vision

Childcare

Mana Perception

Mana Manipulation

Mana Refinement

Water Magic

Description

This goblin has put effort and consideration into whatever they do. That effort has culminated in level two mana manipulation and mana perceptions skills along with a level one water magic skill. Having also succeeded in mana refinement, they have taken the first steps to go beyond a simple mage, however their current level of mana refinement is most likely supplemented by their talent in mana manipulation.

Common Item Drops

E- mana heart

Goblin Staff

A single rank up and race change would be considered the best outcome by most tamers, but for Izu this rank up was still somewhat lacking. Ian knew that Izu wanted to be more than a water mage. He wanted to summon and/or tame water elementals. This evolution didn’t take Izu’s wishes into account and solely focused on what he had trained so far. Ian wasn’t complaining as he knew how difficult it was for the system to take wishes into account. He had only a couple of tamed monsters ever receive a single evolution that took their wishes into account. If Izu chose this evolution, then Ian would have to add some taming and summoning lesson to the learning room. Also, if he couldn’t teach them, then maybe he could tell them stories. Besides, he needed to get over his hiccups about summoning.

Name:

Izu

Race:

Goblin Apprentice Mage

Rank:

E+

Gender:

Male

Attribute:

Neutral

Development:

0/100

Titles:

None

Skills

Stench

Tool Use

Bite

Scratch

Night Vision

Childcare

Mana Perception

Mana Manipulation

Mana Refinement

Water Magic

Mana Pool Increase

Mana Recovery Rate Increase

Description

This goblin has put effort and consideration into whatever they do. That effort has culminated in level two mana manipulation and mana perceptions skills along with a level one water magic skill. Having also succeeded in mana refinement, they have taken the first steps to go beyond a simple mage, however their current level of mana refinement is most likely supplemented by their talent in mana manipulation.

Common Item Drops

E+ mana heart

Goblin Staff

This happened sometimes where the same race would be available but at different ranks. It was only possible to see evolutionary possibilities at max level for tamed monsters, so Ian could only come up with hypotheses before. Now, however, he was constantly checking their development, so he knew that the longer he left their development at one hundred, the more possibilities showed up. The higher rank, E+, Goblin Apprentice Mage showed up first and only after Izu increased his mana perception and mana manipulation skills to two did the E- rank version show up. He hoped Izu heard his explanation to Narcy, so he wouldn’t have to repeat himself.

Name:

Izu

Race:

Goblin Nanny

Rank:

E

Gender:

Male

Attribute:

Neutral

Development:

0/100

Titles:

None

Skills

Stench

Tool Use

Bite

Scratch

Night Vision

Childcare

Patience

Mana Perception

Mana Manipulation

Mana Refinement

Water Magic

Description

Goblin Nannies take care of the goblin children in goblin villages. Most goblin nannies are female rather than male, although there are occasionally males. This goblin’s care and understanding for newborns, infants, and young monsters other than goblins have led to this evolution. It is unusual for goblins to take care of non-goblins except in rare cases.

Common Item Drops

E mana heart

Goblin Blanket

Ian had seen goblin nannies in the wild before, but never was successful in taming them. If he was still viewing Izu as he had originally, then this evolution is what he’d assume Izu would pick. Admittedly he kind of wanted Izu to pick this evolution a little bit, especially with that last line in the description that made it seem like there would be a rare evolution later on. Although, it might simply be referring to goblin riders. Still, it would be Izu’s choice.

“So, Izu, do you have a preference?” Ian asked.

In the background, Mina had her hands clasped together and looked like she really wished she could see his choices.

Izu was silent for a moment before answering, “The lower rank goblin apprentice mage is the better choice correct?”

“Between the two goblin apprentice mage choices or between all four choices?”

“The two apprentice mage choices.”

“Yeah, the lower rank one is the better option.”

“I’ll choose that one then….however I don’t like the fact that it seems to be pushing me towards being a mage when I want to tame or summon water elementals.”

“As long as you start learning about summoning and taming, and contract a water elemental, then your evolution options should expand next time. I’ll also make sure to add the appropriate lessons to the learning room.”

“Thanks, Ian!” beamed Izu with a large smile.

There were no physical changes to Izu’s body as the change took place, however some of his mana gates opened, he obtained a staff, and was now clothed in a robe rather than a loincloth.

Ian could see the question arise on Izu’s face and as he was about to ask it, a loud voice echoed behind him, “We can get weapons and clothes when we evolve?!” yelled Mina with enthusiasm.

Izu looked behind him with a smirk on his face before shrugging his shoulders with a sigh.

“Yes, it is possible to get clothes and weapons due to an evolution, however they’re generally lower quality and they only appear if the owner doesn’t have something better,” Ian answered Mina’s loud question.

“Why didn’t Narcy get anything?” asked Botan.

“For humanoid monsters like you five, we consider there to be two types of evolution:,” Ian started lecturing, “evolutions that are based off of the classes of the sapient races and evolutions based off of the physical or magical characteristics of the individual. Narcy is the latter, while Izu is the former.”

They all nodded in understanding. Ian internally pumped his fist as he realized he successfully taught them something. Depths, now that he thought about it, he also successfully taught them the fire, water, earth game. He might be better than he thought at simply conveying information. Getting others to correctly use that conveyed information was another matter.

“Next, Botan!” Ian called out and made the screens appear in front of Botan’s vision.

Name:

Botan

Race:

Goblin Gardener

Rank:

E

Gender:

Male

Attribute:

Neutral

Development:

0/100

Titles:

None

Skills

Stench

Tool Use

Bite

Scratch

Night Vision

Gardening

Farming

Stamina

Mana Perception

Mana Manipulation

Mana Refinement

Description

A goblin that can grow and raise plants. This goblin’s love of plants has led him to take care of plants even though they had no need for it. His skills gained through plant care have earned him the ability to become a goblin gardener.

Common Item Drops

E mana heart

Goblin Spade

Goblins were hunters and gatherers, so this was the first time he had ever seen a goblin gardener. He almost wanted Botan to take this as it might be the first monster of its kind. However, if he was being serious, there was probably at least one goblin society out there that decided to give gardening or farming a try.

Name:

Botan

Race:

Plant Loving Goblin

Rank:

E

Gender:

Male

Attribute:

Neutral

Development:

0/100

Titles:

None

Skills

Stench

Tool Use

Bite

Scratch

Night Vision

Gardening

Plant Neutrality

Farming

Mana Perception

Mana Manipulation

Mana Refinement

Plant Magic

Description

A goblin whose love of plants is reciprocated. Any plants will have reduced hostility to this goblin. This goblin’s love and care of plants that had no need of it has unlocked this evolutionary option.

Common Item Drops

E mana heart

Goblin Ear

Oddly enough, unlike the goblin gardener, Ian had seen this evolution before. It wasn’t that odd as goblins tended to have odd proclivities, so while the race had been seen before, the way in which Botan got it was very different.

These two evolutions and the normal Goblin E- rank evolution were all that Botan had to choose from.

Botan stared at the windows for around ten minutes before looking at Ian’s core and saying, “Goblin Gardener.”

“What’s your reason for choosing that one?” asked Ian.

“I feel like I can do more to help and take care of the plants with that evolution. Besides, I don’t need an evolution telling me I love plants!” boasted Botan with hands on his hips.

Since Ian didn’t know if the generic E- rank evolution or the E rank goblin gardener evolution was better, he decided not to try swaying Botan’s opinion one way or the other. With that, Botan’s evolution began.

Botan was still his average green goblin self with slightly darker green skin in places not covered by clothes, however his wardrobe increased even more than Izu. A straw hat appeared on his head, a pair of leather gloves on his hands, a pair of leather shoes on his feet, a pair of shorts and a tunic on his body, and a watering can and stone spade in opposite hands.

He looked at his new clothes before yipping in glee and frolicking off to take care of the plants.

“Looks like we’ll be doing Narcy’s, Botan’s, and Yervin’s private rooms last,” muttered Ian loud enough for Mina, Izu, and Pugi to hear.

“They’re having fun, so that’s okay,” stated Mina with a nod.

“Not mad at them for not following orders?”

Mina jerked straight, “My lord! Of course they should be following orders, but the orders they are currently not following aren’t ones that you seemed strict about.”

“That makes sense. However, remember that I expect orders to be followed in important situations.”

“Of course, my lord! I shall do my utmost to make it so!” shouted Mina in the salute of the Soris Kingdom.

“Now, only you and Pugi left. Of course, Pugi first.”

Mina gave a resolute nod in response. Pugi had her arms bent into closed fists in front of her with an excited look on her face as Ian showed her the windows.

Name:

Pugi

Race:

Goblin Trainee

Rank:

E-

Gender:

Female

Attribute:

Neutral

Development:

0/100

Titles:

None

Skills

Stench

Tool Use

Bite

Scratch

Night Vision

Fighting

Punching

Kicking

Mana Perception

Mana Manipulation

Mana Refinement

Description

A goblin on the path of a fighter and martial artist. They are truly an infant on the long journey, but every journey must have a beginning. This goblin’s love of physical combat and the ability to gain the punching skill through punching without form has led them to the beginning of the path of a true martial artist.

Common Item Drops

E- mana heart

Goblin White Belt

This evolution was similar to Izu’s E- rank goblin apprentice mage. A goblin trainee was normally an E- rank monster, but the description clearly showed Pugi only earned the evolution through intense and focused training. If she decided on the normal goblin evolution or goblin fighter, he’d have to attempt convincing her to change her mind.

Name:

Pugi

Race:

Goblin Fighter

Rank:

E+

Gender:

Female

Attribute:

Neutral

Development:

0/100

Titles:

None

Skills

Stench

Tool Use

Bite

Scratch

Night Vision

Fighting

Punching

Kicking

Grappling

Mana Perception

Mana Manipulation

Mana Refinement

Description

A goblin that has dedicated themselves to fighting anything and everything. These goblins will use both their natural abilities to fight opponents along with punches, kicks, and any types of martial arts that they are able to learn. This goblin’s obsession with getting stronger through fighting has opened this option.

Common Item Drops

E+ mana heart

Goblin Ear

After a couple of minutes, Ian asked, “So, Pugi, which one-”

“Goblin Fighter!” she shouted.

Damn. Now he had to get her to choose goblin trainee.

“Why that one?” he asked.

“It has higher skill levels for punching and kicking along with a skill I don’t have!” she said with a shout and a raised hand.

Oh, if that was all, it might take a lot less than he thought to convince her.

“But, if you choose Goblin Fighter you’ll get less punching and kicking in the long run,” Ian smoothly inserted into the conversation.

“....What?” said Pugi her voice filled with anxiety.

“Goblin Fighter focuses on fighting in general, so there will be an equal focus between using your normal goblin abilities like biting and scratching and fighting techniques like punching and kicking.”

“But, Goblin Trainee has lower numbers,” she protested.

“It is also a lower rank, so by the time it or a different race reaches an equivalent rank your punching and kicking skills may be higher. Also, the goblin trainee has a greater focus on the punching and kicking skills. Based on those-”

“I changed my mind! I want to evolve into the goblin trainee!”

Ian sighed internally, but the interruptions didn’t bother him too much, he was used to them. He acquiesced to her request and evolved her into a goblin trainee.

Rather than the loincloth she had before, a shirt and pair of pants appeared along with a cloth belt. However, no shoes appeared and she received no weapons.

Pugi started moving around and practicing punches and kicks in her new outfit before saying, “I don’t like it,” and took it off.

All she was left with was underwear. When she practiced her punches and kicks again, all she said was, “I like this better.”

Ian glanced at Mina and Izu, but as expected they didn’t have any reaction. Why would they? They had all been practically naked for a long time now. However, they did need to get used to wearing clothes.

“Pugi,” Ian began, “I understand it’s much easier to move around without clothes inhibiting your movements, but eventually you’ll have to wear armor for protection. You should wear the clothing provided by your rank up to get used wearing something during combat.”

Pugi stopped practicing and started to stroke her chin before finally answering, “Okay.”

She picked up the clothing and put it back on before starting her practice once again.

Ian turned his attention to the last goblin, Mina, “You’re up, Mina.”

She responded, “Yes!” with a salute.

He had to fully admit that he couldn’t wait to see what she evolved into. If he had encountered her in a dungeon, then he would have made every effort to tame her.

Name:

Mina

Race:

Goblin Warrior

Rank:

E-

Gender:

Female

Attribute:

Neutral

Development:

0/100

Titles:

None

Skills

Stench

Tool Use

Bite

Scratch

Night Vision

Leadership

Loyalty

Swordsmanship

Fighting

Coordination

Honor

Mana Perception

Mana Manipulation

Mana Refinement

Description

Goblin warriors are those who fight with weapons. As such they have no weapon preference, but tend to stick with their highest skill proficiency. Their highest skill proficiency is generally the first weapon they picked up. It would be a sad tale for such a proficient goblin to become a goblin warrior, but it is one of the options available to her.

Common Item Drops

E- mana heart

Goblin Sword

Mina outdid all the other goblins, not including the hobgoblin, in skill number, skill level, and skill type. Two level five skills and five level fours skills at E- rank? Her skills were enough that she probably would have been one of his main monster party when she reached a high enough rank. Ian didn’t have to worry about her picking this one, both because she was intelligent and because with that other option available she wasn’t picking anything else.

Name:

Mina

Race:

Goblin Swordswoman

Rank:

E-

Gender:

Female

Attribute:

Neutral

Development:

0/100

Titles:

None

Skills

Stench

Tool Use

Bite

Scratch

Night Vision

Leadership

Loyalty

Swordsmanship

Fighting

Coordination

Honor

Mana Perception

Mana Manipulation

Mana Refinement

Description

A goblin swordswoman unlike a goblin warrior only prefers the sword. They become one with the sword and all they can think about is the sword, although most wild goblins only become goblin swordsmen or swordswomen because they like how sharp and dangerous swords are. This goblin’s ability and dedication to the sword make her a good candidate to become a true swordswoman, however her loyalty to things beyond the sword is a detriment to obtaining the peak of swordsmanship.

Common Item Drops

E- mana heart

Goblin Sword

A better option that goblin warrior, but once again he knew that she wouldn’t pick it. Based on the descriptions, it seemed that the system knew just as well which evolutions Mina would and wouldn’t pick.

Name:

Mina

Race:

Goblin Beginner Mana Artist

Rank:

E-

Gender:

Female

Attribute:

Neutral

Development:

0/100

Titles:

None

Skills

Stench

Tool Use

Bite

Scratch

Night Vision

Leadership

Loyalty

Swordsmanship

Fighting

Coordination

Honor

Mana Perception

Mana Manipulation

Mana Refinement

Description

Mana artists refine the mana in their body to perform physical feats beyond what is considered normal or sane for their species. A goblin mana artist would not be the first of its kind, but compared to other monsters and sapient races it is a much rarer occupation or race for goblins. This goblin has the work ethic and the mentor to achieve a exceedingly high level of mana refinement and become a near peak level mana artist. It is sad to say that as much as she would use mana refinement to further her goals, those goals do not include becoming a peak level mana artist.

Common Item Drops

E- mana heart

Refined Goblin Mana Heart

Ian couldn’t blame Mina if she didn’t want to become a peak level mana artist. He himself had avoided training to become a mana artist as his adoptive father wanted, instead focusing on becoming a mage. Eventually he decided that training in mana refinement and becoming a top tier mana artist would be useful for his dungeon explorations and had achieved SSS rank. Kayne was glad he had studied refinement of his mana and body, but still disappointed that he didn’t live up to his potential. He wished they hadn’t had a falling out over dungeons, but as he was a dungeon now that would be hard to rectify in his second life.

Becoming a peak level mana artist would be impossible without transcendent level mana refinement and body refinement, but anyone with peak level physical skills needed high level mana refinement to compete. Thus, Ian was glad how much work Mina put into it, and how much talent she had.

Name:

Mina

Race:

Goblin Knight

Rank:

E-

Gender:

Female

Attribute:

Neutral

Development:

0/100

Titles:

None

Skills

Stench

Tool Use

Bite

Scratch

Night Vision

Leadership

Loyalty

Swordsmanship

Armor Handling

Riding

Fighting

Coordination

Honor

Mana Perception

Mana Manipulation

Mana Refinement

Description

Goblin Knights are almost as rare as Goblin Mana Artists as their code goes against everything that a normal goblin stands for. Even though goblin knights have honor and loyalty, it is only to their fellow companions, thus they still attack sapient races on sight. However, nothing it truly absolute. This goblin is truly meant to be a knight.

Common Item Drops

E- mana heart

Goblin Armor

Even glancing at the other evolution options for Mina was a pointless task with this one present. This class was the epitome of the system filling the wishes of an individual. Goblin Knights were nowhere near E- rank individuals. The lowest rank goblin knight that he had ever come across was B+ rank. Admittedly his sample size of six was low, so drawing any conclusions from that was in poor taste. The best part about this evolution was that even if Mina wanted to pick another, he would have to convince her to pick this one as it had the best skill options and levels.

“So, Mina, you pick yet?” asked Ian with a chuckle.

“Do you even have to ask, my lord?” Mina chuckled back.

“No, not really, but I still want to make sure.”

“Goblin Knight, my lord.”

Unlike Izu and Pugi, but more like Botan’s, Mina went through a physical transformation. Although it wasn’t as drastic as Narcy’s or Yervin’s, her muscles became more refined and she gained a couple of inches in height. She also received armor and a weapon. Her armor was a leather version of full plate armor and her weapon was an iron sword in a leather sheath.

After her transformation was complete, Izu came running and gave her a leaping hug. Mina hugged him back and swing him around in the air with both of them laughing with tears coming down their cheeks.

Ian could only watch them with a small internal smile. It seemed that becoming a knight meant a lot more to Mina than he originally thought. The happiness on her face sent a new determination through Ian. He knew he wasn’t the best leader, or lord as Mina called him, and he could never be one, but he wanted to make sure these goblin never regretted being a part of his dungeon. That first step would be providing them with personal homes.