After getting over the shock of the advisor’s “invader value”, Dylan did a careful scan of the advisor, before discovering that the advisor himself counted as an invader, while his staff, particularly the tip of the staff, was worth 3 invaders. At the very tip of the staff sat a tiny crystal formation, split into 3 separate parts from its base. Each of these 3 parts counted as their own invader, though for what reason Dylan wasn’t sure. He did know that out of the chief candidates, this cloaked goblin seemed to be the definite strongest. He could cast magic wordlessly, and he controlled a staff worth 3 invaders. How was he not dangerous?! Dylan would need to carefully plan out his next moves. He did NOT want to get caught, controlled, or destroyed by goblins. He would need to pull out all of the stops if he wanted to succeed. Dylan quickly began to summon monsters with his mana, filling up again by using [Absorb Bodies] on the corpses of the fallen goblins. Even with numbers on his side, the chances of victory were slim.

The goblin army had been marching through the forest about an hour before reaching the river, taking their time as many goblins eagerly searched for their next monster to fight. Unfortunately for those goblins, there was essentially nothing to fight. Only the smallest insects remained within the first half of the forest cave due to Dylan’s orders, with a few exceptions. After finding little in the ways of a fight, the goblins finally reached the river. Facing the river, the goblins had no choice but to turn to their advisor. They did not know how to swim at all. Honestly, the advisor did not know how to swim either. But he had a different way. Calling upon the three earth spirits he had within his staff with his mind, he ordered them to build a bridge through the river using the skill [Spirit Control]; a skill he acquired after his evolution to a goblin shaman. After giving his order, the contracted earth spirits began to drain his mana, before casting his requested magic. The spirits hummed in their own language “[Earth Wall]”, as a wall of earth began to rise out of the river. Stretching from one end to the other, the wall made of packed dirt was about 5 feet wide, and rose a foot above the top of the river, effectively damming the whole river.

“Move, now!” The goblin advisor clenched his teeth under the mask, his voice strained. “I can’t hold it for long! Chief, please pick me up and carry me across!” If the advisor wasn’t carried across, he would be separated from the army, which had already begun to charge recklessly to the far side of the river.

The goblin advisor was petrified, muscles taut in his concentration. He appeared to be rooted to the ground, with how still and tense he was, like a statue. The goblin chief grabbed the goblin advisor, essentially throwing him over his shoulder like a rag before sprinting across the dried-out river, careful not to slip, the goblin chief rushed across, being the last to make it across. As soon as he stepped onto dry land, the advisor’s spirit magic gave out, and the wall of packed dirt crumbled into bits, washed away by the flowing water. The advisor sighed in relief, sinking to the ground in exhaustion. His robe clung to his body from sweat, and his breathing was raspy. The goblin chief glanced over him, before ordering the goblins to rest, an order which was met with several cries of discontent before calming down under the chief’s vicious glare. Seeing this, the advisor sneered under his mask. In reality, he himself wasn’t badly tired, and although his mana levels were low, he did not require much mana to defend himself. He was giving his contracted spirits a break. After casting the [Earth Wall] spell on such a large scale and for such a long period of time, the spirits were exhausted and needed to rest, lest they become useless when it was time for the shaman to turn coat and seize the core. He needed their power for the final battle.

Kuraura shrieked in fear as he leapt about the forest, followed by the clacking of centipedes and other monstrosities. He was currently being chased by 3 giant centipedes and a clawed spider, but he didn’t know it. He was under the impression that there was only one. Kuraura had been leisurely walking through the forest, marveling at the plants and trees when he had passed by a tree, with a centipede leaping out of a blind spot, hoping to chew his face out. By pure stroke of luck, Kuraura had stumbled in fear, causing the centipede to miss its attack. Kuraura had been running for a while now, hoping to escape his pursuer, while the monsters chasing him had slowly begun to corral him towards one side of the cave without him knowing. Suddenly, the forest ended as Kuraura skidded into a small clearing, facing a wall that reached up towards the ceiling. Whipping around, Kuraura faced his pursuer, only to find several creeping out of the underbrush, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up in fear. 3 giant centipedes pushed through the brush as a clawed spider landed in front of Kuraura from the trees, brandishing its claws threateningly as it reached for Kuraura’s face.

Kuraura don’t want to die…Please…anyone! Save Kuraura! Kuraura will repay with life and serve you! Please! Kuraura prostrated on his knees, begging to an unknown higher being to save him. Tears ran down his face as snot dripped from his nose. Raising his head, he saw the spider, claws outstretched, frozen like a statue. The centipedes which had been approaching had stopped as well, the only indication that they were still alive was the twitching of their antennae as they seemed to calmly analyze Kuraura. As he glanced around in confusion, he felt a strong feeling welling up within him, almost as if a god was watching him. The presence had manifested in the air above the spider, and seemed to calmly analyze him, just as he was doing to it.

Suddenly, a calming feeling overtook Kuraura, as feelings of reverence and joy filled his very being to the brim. This was his god, the supreme lord who saved his very life. Kuraura would live for him, and Kuraura would die for him. For some reason, Kuraura instinctively knew that his god was a 'male'. Kuraura prostrated once again, body shivering in delight, his tears of fear now replaced by those of joy.

Ding!

Congratulations, you have subordinated Kuraura of the [Purple Goblin] species.

You can now [Summon]: Purple Goblin (F)

…WTF?! Dylan drew back in disappointment. Only an (F) rank monster? Why is it so weak? It ran for quite a while though? Why did I waste time on this disappointment? I used up nearly all of my mana for this?

If Dylan could go back in time, he definitely would have gone back to tell his past self to end the goblin quickly instead of subordinating it. He used up nearly all of his mana just to subordinate and learn how to make an (F) rank monster; the same amount he could have used to evolve another animal or insect into an (E-) rank. The only valuable thing he gained was learning how to use his [Subordination] skill. He could use the skill when he felt a peculiar presence from an invader, to the point where their ‘threat’ seemed to vanish from Dylan’s [Dungeon Watching] and appeared as something ‘curious’, almost like a question mark on a game’s mini-map or something similar. Dylan filed this information away for later reference, then ordered all of the monsters, Kuraura included, to head towards his core for the final defense against the goblins, instructing them to take to the trees to cross the river due to the canopy of the forest interlocking. He needed all of the monsters he could get for the war, and he was willing to sacrifice all of the monsters if it meant his survival.

The goblins had been marching for a decent while, matching the pace of the advisor, who was their slowest member. The rustling of bushes and noises of insects were commonplace, but nothing indicated that there were monsters nearby, and many of the goblins were itching for a fight. As they continued, one of the scouts shouted excitedly as he saw the tail-end of a giant centipede disappearing into the brush. As a group of eager goblins rushed forward in pursuit…

SNAP

The vines covering the pit they were stepping in broke, and the goblins fell into one of Dylan’s deepest pits. This one in particular had rock formations resembling spears pointing towards the sky littering its floor. The goblins fell 10 feet into the pit, impaling themselves on the spikes, killing two and injuring the other three in the group. From then on, the goblin army was ordered to be even more careful. A tighter leash was kept on them by the chief and advisor, who didn’t want to lose forces, and now only scouts were allowed to push forward, locating pits and detouring the army around them. This gave Dylan more time to prepare his monsters and make last minute preparations. Finally, after nearly an hour careful treading, the goblins arrived in a large field of grass bordering the edge of the cave. Seeing the sheer rock-face in front of them caused some of the goblins to look up in amazement, but most of the sharper goblins stared grimly at the center of the field, where a mass of monsters awaited them.

Dozens of giant centipedes crawled over each other, clacking their mandibles threateningly, large ants peeked up through the grass occasionally as bombardier beetles leaped around. Several fence-like structures made out of stone housed some goblins and wolves, all of them beaten and exhausted, smeared in dirt and blood, laying on the ground, breathing weakly. The insect type monsters glared into the cages from time to time, yet didn’t seem to want to enter the cages.

This Dungeon is intelligent enough to take prisoners? Or is it a trap? Also, the sheer numbers make this look like a final defense… The advisor narrowed his eyes before turning to the chief.

“This should be most of the dungeon’s remaining monsters. This dungeon is many times more intelligent than I was expecting it to be. We need to kill those monsters quickly and take control over the core immediately. Also, we should probably kill those goblins in the cages just in case.”

The chief nodded before turning to the army of goblins and yelling.

“KILL THE MONSTERS!”

The goblins cheered as they rushed the mass of insects before them.