The moment Cast Illusions reached level 2, a change occurred with the skill itself. To be more precise, some of the features of the skills got unlocked and became available to me. Previously, the skill would activate and immobilize the target, making it unfeeling to everything happening outside as its consciousness trapped in an illusion realm.

Now that the skill had reached level 2, I began to understand the principle behind the magic application. Exactly how the thing affects the target and how did it make it unfeeling to everything outside. Now I have somewhat of a vague idea of the implementation and can influence the illusion to a limited aspect. I can influence what my targets see while under the effect of the illusion. This was undoubtedly a very good thing, giving me more freedom in the application of the skill itself.

A very dark idea popped into my head as I thought of this new application. I started to think, ‘what if I use it to mind control the goblins to fight among each other?’ clearly this was a very feasible idea and theoretically possible as well. All I had to do was to make these goblins see each other as ‘me’ their target and they would do the rest themselves.

After waking up, and getting this surprise, I was in a very high spirit. To test out my newfound knowledge, I came out of the hole to find my guinea pigs… only to see a barren hallway with little to no goblins around. I was confused initially thinking why these vengeful assholes suddenly let go of their hatred. Especially when I had killed a strong member not long ago.

Thinking of such trivialities, I walked through the hallway and to the open corridor where I killed my very first goblin. Just as I was about to step out of the darkness and into the light of the hallway, I came to a grinding halt. My eyes dilated as a sense of extreme paranoia hit me hard. This was an extremely familiar feeling that I felt not very long ago. Even though sweat glands didn’t exist in an imp, I could swear feeling my back drenched in cold sweat.

The first thought that came to my mind was to run away and hide inside the hole. This was the instinct of the Imp, the ‘fear the strong and bully the weak’ mentality of feral creatures. But as a human, I felt it was necessary to see the source of this weird feeling I just had. Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese strategist said in his book, know your enemy and know yourself and you will be undefeated in hundreds of battles.

By now, I was already sure the source of such an unsettling feeling was a very powerful enemy, and I want to confirm exactly who this enemy was. After all, if I want to survive, I had to make sure of my enemy’s strength and weakness. The disappearance of goblins was a glaring clue that I couldn’t ignore.

Taking extra precautions, I stalked the hallway. Careful to not step into the light, I scanned the room with my inherent infrared vision. You should have some idea how infrared vision works, basically, it allows me to see the infrared radiation of objects, which was nothing but their temperature. With this, I could even see through walls… provided there was actually a heat-radiating source beyond the walls. I could even see farther than what I remembered as human. After scanning the whole hallway for a few seconds, I finally saw a huge yellow cluster lumped in one of the corners of the corridors.

Taking one step at a time, I crouched down and craned my neck beyond the hallway. There I saw the source of my fear. It was huge, probably two or three meters tall, brown skin with dense black body hair. It had a huge hairy belly, jutting out like people having a beer belly. It had a pig head with an elongated snout and two white teeth jutting out from its lower lips. I instantly recognized this creature, it's none other than the mythical orc.

It had defined muscles despite looking like a fat person. It was naked though and smelled like a pigsty. As for the weapon, it held a huge crudely made hammer that rusted out and looked like it could break at any moment. It was resting with its back to the wall.

Its nose flared as it snorted as if smelling something edible nearby. My legs nearly gave out when its ferocious-looking, beady red eyes faced my direction. Fortunately, it seems its eyesight was bad, as it couldn’t see me despite facing my direction for a while. Its sense of smell though was somewhat extraordinary.

After it turned away, I hastily retreated, not willing to stay even a second longer than necessary. That thing looked like it could break the pitiful me in half like a twig. The good thing was it was far away from my hole so I had no immediate dangers from it. The bad thing was that due to its presence, the goblins retreated to their hiding place, therefore I was now out of a food source as well as training dummies.

In these ten days, the only monster I saw were goblins and some occasional slimes that slither around aimlessly. Those things weren’t edible at all, with a taste similar to bitter jelly, no wonder they were left alone by almost all monsters. Therefore, I had to think of a way to resolve my precarious situation. Currently, two paths were visible before me; to raid the goblin settlement located somewhere out there or to attack the orc… both paths lead to a death probability of 110%.

While deep in thought, I returned to my hole.

…

“Where did that pig go?” a girl with short blonde hair and a well-defined facial feature asked her partner who was also a girl, with short hair as well. The second girl had green hair, with longer side-bangs and green eyebrows. Both looked around twenty, with a voluptuous body that could arouse the desire of any man or woman.

The blonde-haired woman holding a sword and short rounded shield in her hand. She wore a well-fitting leather one-piece suit and a steel-plated armour above it. Her partner, the woman with green hair, she wore cloth armour and held a brown stick with a green glowing gem on the top.

Her heterochromatic eyes started to glow brightly as she scanned the empty and dark corridor, “that pig definitely passed through this place. It must have been gone deeper into the dungeon.” Then she faced her partner and asked, “What do you want to do now? Continue or give up for today?”

“You know I can’t, Cathie.” The blond hair girl shield, lowering her sword and shield with a downcast look, “if I can’t kill it today I would forever lose hope to promote my rank in the guild. They tasked me with killing a D-rank monster and I couldn’t do it even though I have you to watch my back.”

“Leah, don’t sell yourself short, we both know you already have the qualification to be a D ranked hunter. It’s just a matter of time before you are publicly acknowledged.” Cathie tried to console Leah, the blonde.

“Yeah, but if I don’t kill this monster in the next three days, I would forever lose the qualification to attend rank up exams in the future. Then I will be struck in Rank C for my whole life even if I train myself to S-rank.” Leah lamented while as she leaned on the black walls of the dungeon.

“I feel like you are worrying too much. It's just a small town’s guild. If you fail here, you can always apply to another town’s guild.” Cathie tried to make her friend understand that everything wasn’t as bleak as it seemed to her.

“But this is my home town… I want to prove myself to the people of my own home.” Leah shook her head stubbornly before standing up and looked determined, “alright, no time to waste, let’s go and find that pig and kill it. I can’t afford to fail this task no matter what.”

“Alright” Cathie followed quite behind her friend.

While I was thinking of ways to my perilous situation, a conversation between two humans took place just at the mouth of the dungeon I got reincarnated into. God seemed to have seen my situation and thus sent two helpers in the form of adventurers with their own troubles. These two girls were still unaware of the changes they would bring to this dungeon and the role they would eventually play in my accession. Of course, neither did I know of the future as well at that time.

…

At the same time, inside the goblin settlement, the leaders of the tribe seemed to have come into a decision. They organized a platoon of powerful goblins equipped with junky and rusted weapons and armours and sent them to confront the orc that had taken residence in their turf. When I heard about the commotion, I came out of my hole and followed the sound, only to find an epic scene before me.

Hundreds of goblins flanked the orc, attacking it from every possible angle. These goblins were all sturdy and powerful, the same as the last one I hunted with tribal markings all over their body. Leading them was an extra buffed up goblin whose height was just a tad bit shorter than the orc. Unlike the rest of baldheads, it had long brown hair that reached all the way to its mid-back. In its hands was a rusty double-edged axe that gleamed in the darkness.

Being attacked from all sides, the orc was swinging its weapon in a reckless abandon. Each time it swung the weapon, a few goblins would burst like watermelons, yet they never retreated. The leader goblin was leading the fight; it was attacking the creature from all sides while the orc was busy dealing with weaker goblins.

Roar!!

Suddenly the orc roared to the skies, as its body started to give off a red vibe. The blood vessels in its body became visible too. Its swinging speed increased several folds as it successfully began to push back the assault of the goblin horde. The leader goblin tried to resist its frantic swinging, but ultimately the orc’s strength came out supreme as it nearly broke the leader goblin’s neck with its thick tree bark like hands.

Hundreds of goblins and yet they were pushed back by a lone orc with a crude weapon. From this, the orc’s strength could be imagined. Unable to continue further, the goblin leader retreated with the remaining ones who survived. The way they ran back with their non-existent tails between their legs, it was very hilarious to me. I also relished in the feeling of indirect revenge, as being hunted wasn’t the greatest feeling to have.

After they ran away, I looked at the orc that fell down face fast with the red aura vanishing. It looked weak as if the simplest nudge could kill it now. Looking at such an orc, I started to have ideas. With the intention to kill, I closed the distance between us. Standing above its head, with my white pole raised to deliver the finishing blow, I contemplated on gains and losses in doing so.

“Are you going to kill me now?” before I could come to a decision, a gruff male’s voice rang in my ear. Looking down from where the voice actually came from, I saw the orc’s beady red eyes looking at me with emotions that I could not decipher. Probably it knew its own demise the moment I stepped out of my hiding place, it didn’t show that violent attitude it had towards goblins.

“Y, you can talk?” I was so surprised that I replied to the orc with a nonsensical question.