Chapter 28: Goblin Lord

While my troop was resting and recuperating, the goblin habitat was thrown into a huge turmoil. Everything started with Gyuk suddenly going crazy and attacking everything. The rest of the Orcs soon followed the suit to help their commander rampage around as much as possible.

The Goblin General had to join the fight to curb the damage and rampaging orcs. However, Gyuk was no longer acting on his own behalf. He was now my slave, so to speak. Having received the order to fight until death, how can he not fulfill it? To be more precise, he was incapable of disobeying it. The order was ingrained in his head, like the gospel of the god. Even to his death, he would have to do it.

The battle was so destructive that towards the end, the Goblin Lord had to get involved. While separated by the cloud of purple fog, I couldn’t go to the other side and didn’t have any way knowing what happened while I cut the connection with Gyuk. Not until another five hours passed and finally the Nightmare Seed bloomed inside Goblin General.

Like how it happened with Gyuk, when I connected to the link between general and me, I appeared on the same purple cloudy space. Before me, the burly and ferocious-looking general stood with a blank look on its face and eyes glazed over.

The first question I asked after it arrived was thus, “How did you become a Goblin General?”

“I followed the lord’s words and tried to command goblins even when I was only an infant goblin. When I became juvenile goblin, a skill appeared in my head. Its name was Lead. When I use it, twenty nearby goblins will listen to me and obey whatever I order them to. I could also enhance the strength and speed of all those goblins who were affected under the effect of Lead.” Its reply made me realize that the existence of skills wasn’t a secret in this world as even monsters knew how to create or at least get one. Or maybe it was something only people like Goblin Lord knew. If so, then how many skills humans or other higher intelligent beings have?

I was still relatively unknown about the strength distribution of this world. The only thing I knew was that monsters divided by infant, juvenile, and adult. While humans have something akin to the level system. There was also racial evolution available for monsters. It had appeared twice for me. From Imp I could have evolved to a kitsune. These two share no genetic similarity, and yet after amassing enough EPs, I could have evolved. If such a thing was possible for monsters, then what about humans? Can they also jump races?

I put all these questions to the back of my mind, shelved them for the time when I see Cathie again, and ask her about it. Before that king tossed us to the dungeon, aside from some superficial training, they provided almost nothing. Not even the general knowledge of this world. Speaking of knowledge, I guess, they did mention us about a few monsters and their usual habits. But, it was only limited to that exact dungeon. However, try as I might, I couldn’t recall ever hearing about the monster that attacked us.

“What about the orcs that joined you?” I asked about Gyuk and the rest who betrayed their tribe. Why did I ask that question? That’s because according to my system, Gyuk was still alive. Towards the end, where Nightmare Seed planted should be 2/3, was displaying 3/3.

“They were subdued and are currently locked up in the Snake Pit. Lord has ordered us to keep an eye on them. He said he will produce something called ‘truth drug’ to use on them.”

“Truth drug! Who exactly is your lord? Why did he know so many drugs? In the first place, how can he make so many of them?” I asked in surprise. Actually, it wasn’t a question I was expecting an answer to, I just asked it because I was that surprised. However, an answer came nonetheless.

“Lord said he was a royal apothecary of a kingdom. He was killed by his own people. However, before the killer, who happened to be his own disciple, landed the finishing blow, he sent his soul to a distant land. That’s how he was born as a goblin. That’s all I know about the lord. His abilities and their secrets, he never divulged such things to me.” The emotionless voice of the goblin told me something I never expected to hear.

“Eh? Is it the truth? Why did the lord said you these things?” I was surprised, to be honest. Although I expected things to be like this to some extent, still when expectations become a reality, one would, of course, feel surprised. But, what I couldn’t understand was why did that person tell these things to a goblin.

“Lord seeks revenge against that kingdom. Therefore, he wanted to dominate this whole dungeon, then march towards that kingdom with his army of monsters, and bring it to ruin. That’s why he was making a strong army of goblins, who could win against the rest of the powerful monsters of this place. But, orcs struck before his plans and work came into fruition.”

Of course, it was revenge. Moreover, this goblin had the same line of thinking as me. Amass an army of monsters and bulldoze through the enemy. Unlike me, his methods were proactive, probably because he was an apothecary who knew various medicines that could increase someone’s strength in a short period of time.

Suddenly I had a bold thought of meeting this person face to face. Our goals were somewhat similar. That person wanted revenge against a kingdom, and my enemy was coincidentally a kingdom and its king. However, now was not the time for that. After I make sure that I am fully in control of the situation, then only I reveal myself. The time I spent inside this dungeon had somewhat toughened me, and shaved away layers of naivety. I was not that previous Alex who couldn’t understand the gravity of the situation.

Honestly, if it was before this war, I might have run towards that goblin lord regardless of knowing anything just because he was someone like me. With the personality of this goblin lord, I would definitely fall for his schemes and become his tool, like how it happened to Gyuk. As strong as I was with my illusion skills, in the end, I would have fallen to the sweet-sounding line called ‘we are similar’.

“Did the lord ever mentioned which kingdom he belonged to?” I was trying to dig out as much information about him as possible so that it could give me an absolute edge when it was the time for our face-to-face confrontation. Although my enemy wasn’t a good schemer due to him being an apothecary before this, neither am I as well. Before coming to this world, I was just a normal office person who only saw conflicts of such scale on TV. Neither of us was good at manipulation, we could only use underhand methods like planting Nightmare Seed or making others consume poison potion.

Since it’s yielding good results, I guess, that’s enough for now.

“He never mentioned which kingdom he came from, but, he did say that the kingdom wasn’t that far from this place. He also said that he knew this dungeon from inside out due to how often he frequented this place.” The subdued consciousness of goblin general kept answering my questions but… the more of my questions were answered even more born inside my heart.

By now, I already realized that this dungeon wasn’t the same one where I died. This means, I might not be even in Aseavell Empire anymore. But that didn’t matter to me in the slightest. I, who had been reduced to such a state, no longer have the lofty ambition of returning to my past life. I might seek to become a human once again, but that’s only because of my attachment to the race and the fact that I couldn’t accept being a monster no matter how much good results it brought me.

The strength I have seen so far might just be a drop in the bucket. After watching orcs fighting for so long, I made an estimated strength comparison to some things back on earth. An orc’s strength when it charges at its enemy was akin to a bull’s charging. I estimate the force between both their charges was somewhat the same. Second, when the orcs use their skills to increase their attack power, their strength should be no less than a charging rhino or an angrily stomping elephant. Back on earth, these animals could even destroy or at least topple over huge trucks and buses.

That’s how powerful these orcs were… and yet they weren’t at the top of the food chain. In fact, they didn’t even stand at the top among all the monsters of this dungeon. They only occupied the second floor of this four-leveled dungeon. Didn’t that mean there were monsters even stronger than them in this place? After knowing this, I calmed down my rampant surging emotions of getting out and becoming the strongest.

Perhaps before those monsters, my meager stats were laughable at best. Therefore, even though everything was going according to my machinations, I didn’t feel complacent. I couldn’t afford to feel complacent. Unlike monsters of this place, I don’t want to stay inside here for too long. It was especially so after getting the skill Metamorph. In past, I didn’t go out because I was just a ‘mere imp’ but with a skill that could turn me to anything I wish, there shouldn’t be any trouble mingling with others. With this skill, I could pass off as a member of any race and not arouse any suspicion from anyone.

For now, my greatest obstacle was that the light barrier preventing me from going outside.

While the real strength of the Goblin Lord was still relatively unknown, at least I am now fully aware of his identity. The Goblin Lord, as expected, wasn’t a fighting type. Second, he was also an evolved goblin, like that Goblin General. His evolved class was called Goblin Chemist. The Goblin Lord was just a title he gave himself after ascending the throne.

Third, while the general didn’t know much about goblin lord’s skills, he did saw him using one of them frequently. He could give normal plants ‘medicinal properties’ thereby turning them into medicinal plants. Then he would use these medicinal plants to create his dubious potions. Back then, when I asked Logier about the methods of goblin lord’s attack, he said that the lord just threw the bottle of strange water towards him. Although he avoided it, the bottle destroyed itself and spread around the harmful gas from within which ultimately damaged his hand.

Then I ended the conversation with him and decided to do something I had never done before. Linking myself to Gyuk’s consciousness, I gave him an order.

Half an hour later, when I reconnected with his consciousness again, the orc appeared in the same purple cloudy area, looking the same emotionless and cloudy eyes gazing at the nothingness before him.

“Is it done?” I asked grimly. The last half an hour brought huge waves in my heart. I couldn’t calm down at all. My heart would thump, my legs would cramp, and that’s especially so because every five minutes or ten minutes, I would receive a notification about killing an Adult Orc and gaining 2 EPs. That’s right, the order I gave Gyuk was to kill all the orcs who were captured. In order to hide my own identity, I ultimately did something as cruel as ordering the annihilation of a whole group.

“Yes, I have killed all the orcs. Now, only I am alive in this pit.” When he confirmed, I felt like a mountain pressing down on my heart. I felt heavy, and for a moment I also felt light-headed. The pressure was immense. Gulping loudly, I asked the emotionless orc a question not related to any of my plans. It was just for my self-satisfaction, “Do you hate me for making you do this? After all, they all are your own people.”

“No. I knew this was for the betterment of our tribe. What you are doing is ultimately for our own survival.” His answer made me feel a lot heavier instead of bringing me a sense of relief. If he said, he loathed me for giving him this order, I might have felt some solace.

Now that I think about it, the fake memories I inserted in his heart were about how I am a messiah who came to their tribe to save them. And it was under my orders he left the tribe and joined the enemy to act as a spy. I felt like a real shit at that moment.

“Gyuk, now, I am going to kill you as well. Before you go, let me tell you the real reason why I ordered you to kill your brethren. It was to make sure the goblin lord didn’t know about me too soon. It had nothing to do with your tribe, it was for my own survival.” Perhaps I was under the stress of committing such a huge taboo, what I told him was but a huge lie. Indeed, I ordered Gyuk to kill them so that my existence could remain hidden, but that wasn’t because I was afraid of anything.

It was so that we could win this war. With me hidden, the goblin lord would invest all his attention on orcs, completely relaxing his guard. At that the right moment, I could land a critical blow and win this war in one fell swoop without any orcs dying. This was the real plan, however, perhaps I wanted him to feel anger towards me, and ultimately I spoke this lie.