Pwoosh! Pwoosh! Several shots of acid flew towards the goblins from the trees. The goblin leading the group yelped a warning as his sharp eyesight caught the arcing acid in the dim light. Feeling a shot hit his arm, the goblin squealed in pain before instinctively somersaulting back, dodging a few more shots. Luckily, he had been ahead of his group, lest they get hit by the acid as well.

“How bad hurt?” The goblin with markings covering it asked as it walked forward, causing the other goblins around it to back away warily.

“Please back up,” The scout replied, eyes nearly bulging out of his head in panic. “only a small acid attack, no need panic.” The marked goblin grunted the affirmative, before returning to the back of the group. The goblin scout sighed in relief, and the group visibly relaxed as they continued calmly. Of course, none of their actions were missed by Dylan’s [Dungeon Watching]. Watching the interaction between them, Dylan came to several solutions.

The one with the markings must be the group leader of some sort. All of the other goblins seemed to fear it in some way. The goblin leading the group is probably a scout of some sort. He reacted quite well to the acid, and decisively retreated after spotting it. Even now, they are moving calmly due to his diffusing of the situation. Dylan decided that killing the lead goblin, or attacking the marked goblin was most important. The leading goblin clearly had superior detection and analytical skills. Without him, the group might fall into chaos. Likewise, the marked goblin seemed to instill fear into all of them, including the scout. Considering the fact that the scout goblin stopped him from stepping within range of the acid, Dylan reckoned that the group did not want this guy to get hurt or killed, which could mean either of several things… Either that marked goblin is a valuable support unit, or a berserker. This was the conclusion Dylan had come to, and he was definitely leaning towards the latter. This world definitely had fantasy-like components to it, and magic was definitely mentioned by the voice of the world. So why not berserker monsters? At this rate, it had to be a berserker. Why would a mage or healer approach with the intent to lead a charge anyway? There was no other option. It had to be a berserker.

Dylan smirked as he watched the group cautiously making its way through, beginning to lag behind the other groups. Let’s move on to the next group, since this one seems to want to take its sweet time. Dylan quickly ordered his monsters away from this one, targeting another group with a marked goblin to try out his new strategy. He quickly called for the right monsters after locating another group with a berserker…

A scout goblin by the name of Gret led his group through the dense forest, sniffing as he walked, eyes peeled to glimpse the smallest of movements in the forest surrounding them. Glancing up, he spotted nothing but endless branches, vines, leaves and plants once again. Sighing, he looked back ahead at him…Only to catch movement. He startled forward, pressing low to the ground before hissing back at his group to stay put. He crept forward and activated his skill, before catching sight of a beautiful blue butterfly, flying in a clearing. Powder which seemed to glitter in the light fell off of its beautiful blue wings with each flap, and it flew in a hypnotizing, alluring manner. Gret didn’t appreciate beautiful creatures, but even he had to admit that the butterfly was quite pleasing to the eye. In fact, he was so distracted by it, that he had trouble thinking for a few breath’s time, snapping out of his stupor after hearing a cry of rage from behind him.

Oh no…Didn’t notice..! Gret whipped his head backwards, and saw his group erupting into chaos, as their berserker, Grug, screamed in rage before swinging his fists with reckless abandon. With Gret’s superior eyesight and activated skill, he noticed a small spider and several large ants clinging to the berserker’s back, their mandibles piercing into Grug’s skin, the spider’s fangs swelling as it pumped venom into him. The goblin warrior and other 2 goblins attempted to stay away from the berserker, who was attacking everything with wild abandon, snapping trees and trampling the underbrush. Their widened bat-like eyes showed their fear, and Gret was sure he looked the same as them. Goblin berserkers, although fairly stupid by goblin standards, had incredible strength, making them respected powerhouses among the goblins, who valued strength. Even though they were rock-stupid and tended to lose their temper easily, berserkers could still tell friend from foe. Gret quickly wracked his mind to find a possible solution, then settled on a theory. He reasoned that either the spiders or ants had a confusing venom, causing Grug to feel pain and react to the other goblins as enemies. Decisively drawing out a solution to the problem, Gret whipped out a crude sling, added a fist-sized stone to it, and started swinging…

Crack! Crack! Two sizable stones cracked onto Grug, one striking and killing an ant, and the other unfortunately striking his head as he darted about. Gret grunted and leapt back as Grug took a step forward, slamming his fists into the ground while screaming in rage. Grug definitely saw him and the other goblins as enemies now, as seen by the broken bodies of the other goblins on the ground, groaning in pain. After Gret had launched the first stones over 5 minutes ago, Grug had misunderstood them as an attack and had been on the offensive, looking to snap his neck. The other goblins had tried to stop Grug, but unfortunately did not attempt to use lethal force on the crazed berserker, resulting in him bulldozing them into the ground. As Grug charged forward once again, Gret leapt back in response. Except this time…

“Guh?!” Something shoved Gret from the back, causing him to fall over. As he looked up, the last thing he saw was Grug’s fist flying towards his face…

Ding!

You can now [Summon]: Goblin Scout(E-)

Your organisms can now be granted [Hone In] due to the death of the skill’s user within the dungeon

[Hone In]? Is that why the goblin was so focused on the butterfly that he didn’t notice my insects attacking? That can also explain how he didn’t even notice a giant centipede crawling behind him while he was fighting the berserker…Then the skill sucks! Dylan quickly read the skill description before dismissing the newly acquired skill as being nearly worthless. Why would he want his monsters to use a skill which prevented them from understanding their surroundings better?

Ding!

You can now [Summon]: Goblin Berserker(E)

Your organisms can now be granted [Rage] due to the death of the skill’s user within the dungeon

Oh, he’s dead too? I guess he has been rampaging around for a while, with all that venom and blood loss. Dylan watched the berserker collapse from exhaustion, slumping to the ground as the viper spider detached itself from its back. Dylan turned to his new skill, reading its description. This skill is probably usable, though not if the user has a weak mindset. Dylan had seen how the confusion caused by the spider’s venom could affect someone with the [Rage] skill, and he did not want to undergo that with his monsters. Snapping out of his thoughts, Dylan quickly summoned 12 more viper spiders and 12 more lure butterflies…

Now then…Rinse and repeat. Dylan mentally called for some giant centipedes to clear up the mess, then started to coordinate his next attacks.

Several hours later, Dylan glanced at the remaining groups of goblins. For the most part, his chaos-ensuing attacks had worked fairly well. It seemed as if all of the goblin scouts had the [Hone In] ability, which worked wonders for Dylan when he utilized the lure butterflies to attract their attention, while using viper spiders to attack their berserker or tamer, as Dylan had now figured it out to be. The success of the strategy truly depended on how quickly the scouts reacted, and their accuracy. Nearly all of the berserker groups had been destroyed by their own berserker, with the exception of one group. That group, however, only had their berserker left, as the goblin scout had managed to kill the viper spider latched to the berserker, but the berserker was so out of it that he murdered his scout anyway. Dylan left him wandering throughout the dungeon, ordering monsters to keep away from him, opting to finish him off after he calmed back down.

Unfortunately, the viper spider strategy does not work well with those tamer goblins…Dylan was disgruntled by this, but he expected it. The groups containing tamers usually had the wolves cooperating with the goblin scout, and while the scout would get distracted by the lure butterfly in every attempt, the same could definitely not be said for the wolves. They leapt at the butterflies immediately after seeing them, either tearing them apart or chasing them away. Unfortunately, that strategy did not work, but Dylan had found purchase in another strategy, which was to use a wild boar to trigger the wolves’ instincts, separating them long enough for Dylan to swarm that particular group with his army of centipedes and bombardier beetles, which granted him the ability to summon wolves, the goblin tamer (E-), and a new ability. That being said, the rest of the tamer groups were still around with full numbers and little injuries. Dylan regretted not setting up traps in advance, yet the only thing he could remain content with for now was the fact that all of the goblin groups were currently held up on the river, which Dylan had had the good sense to triple in size and depth after seeing the goblins’ capabilities. Clearly the goblins were not good swimmers, and even though the river was fairly shallow, it flowed quickly, with slippery smooth stone underneath the water’s surface. This was currently where the 6 remaining groups were held up, and it allowed Dylan to regain his bearings for a short while, and prepare for the later battles.

[Hone In](New): Allows the user to better perceive a target, allowing better understanding of a target’s body language. Locks the user’s consciousness onto the target, preventing them from detecting actions coming from anything other than the target.

[Rage](New): The user becomes enraged at the slightest provocation or injury, increasing the user’s power and recklessness while lowering their cunning for a period of time. The user becomes more powerful yet more reckless the more injured they are.

[Animal Friends](New): Allows the user to understand the feelings of animals, and communicate with them for better teamwork.