I winced as the flames singed me and the goblin I was holding. The flames weren’t hot enough to melt bone, though, and merely made the goblin’s bones easier to access and mold for my own use.

I split into 10 sections, controlling each portion as if they were my own limbs.

One of my sections was suddenly lifted out of the ground via the labyrinth-stone surrounding it, and hovered in the air. It slowly dug its way out of the stone piece, but the section was crushed within the stone, and rendered temporarily unusable.

Another section started reverberating violently as a sound-aligned shook it apart.

Still, I had 8 other sections to control, and it did not appear as though any other goblin could reach my sections while I was down here. All but one burst through the ground, ripping and tearing into the closest goblin to each section. Half of them were instantly incinerated, shattered, or otherwise incapacitated, but the other half tore into their marks, more than making up for the lost bones as I molded their skeletons to fit my own.

Where is the coordination from earlier? Where is that goblin commander that was causing so much trouble?

I scanned the area, but they were nowhere to be found.

I don’t know why they left, but that makes this easier. I’ll crush them like the lesser beings they are… Lesser beings?

I shook my head, turning my attention back to the fight. As expected, the voice’s influence is building up. I’ll have to make this quick.

I turned my attention to the two goblins who were making distinct casting motions I could detect whilst underground, and beelined towards them, snaking my way through and raking my jagged legs at the other goblins as I passed.

A firebolt of great intensity launched at one section. I detached the “head” section, throwing it in the path of the spell to block.

Another section was dragged into the earth and crushed, another reverberated apart, but my remaining sections closed in on the rock-covered goblin.

They flailed their arms about, smashing into a few sections as I dug into them, but to no avail. The fire-aligned screamed as I landed the killing blow on the rock-covered goblin, and his stone armor fell to the ground.

I made a slight diversion, tearing through and eating a few more goblins at the center of their pack to recover my lost bone sections and mana, before going after the sound-aligned goblin.

They wailed, outwardly, causing the other goblins to hold their own ears, and my bones to crack. I sacrificed a section, crawling down the noisy goblin’s gullet to block off their vocal chords before slashing them apart from the inside.

And with that, no other goblin in the vicinity had the ability to attack through stone to fight me. One of the goblins shouted out a word, signaling the others to retreat. They ran back through the tunnel, approaching the village, but weren’t quick enough.

One section, the one I had stored underground, emerged ahead of them. A firebolt launched in its direction, which I phased out a boulder to block. Then, to block off their path, I launched my space-bolt at the boulder, causing it to expand to fit the confines of the narrow tunnel.

With no escape route, and no ability to counterattack, their lives were forfeit.

* * *

None of the goblins had the key I was looking for. Where could it be? It wasn’t with the goblins that were around the cage. It obviously wouldn’t be with some random soldier. Perhaps it’s in that castle?

From what I know of goblins, their royal line — the hobgoblins — typically take the role of executioners, so it would make sense for them to hang on to the key. Unfortunately, getting the key from them may pose a problem.

Unlike the average goblin, hobgoblins are an actual threat. Much like elves, they’re born with their powers, and are much more likely to reach D or even C rank. A D rank I could fight, maybe even several with some trial and error, but a C rank would be an issue.

That being the case, my next move has to be stealth, rather than force. But first, I should make a few preparations…

* * *

After eating and phasing the goblins around me into the goblin terrarium, I dug under the goblin village,“borrowed” a few beast corpses, and raided the Petra Vermis stables. They couldn’t exactly fight back from the inside of their cages, so the act of killing them was a rather simple task. The goblins taking care of the stables either died after I dug up beneath them, or ran away at the first sign of trouble.

Afterwards, I made a few preparations. Firstly, I pre-built a tunnel under the human cage. On the off chance I need to leave in a hurry, it'll be best to have at least some part of the tunnel pre-built as a buffer. The obvious problem here is that the labyrinth may automatically swallow up the hole I made, but that’s an unavoidable issue for any who try to make their own paths within the labyrinth. Though making a path deep into the labyrinth isn’t impossible, it almost never lasts more than a few hours. Thus, my actions here likely will only have meaning if I make off with the key soon.

* * *

After making an escape tunnel beneath the cage — leaving a few feet between the surface so no passing goblin would notice — I dig my way around and into the middle floors of the castle.

I phased some labyrinth stone into the wall to cover the hole I’d made, shifted into fly form, then took a look around. For such a decently sized castle, it was rather sparsely populated. A few goblins roamed the halls, carrying trays of grapes or wine, but after searching for 15 minutes, I only saw a single hobgoblin.

I suppose it makes a bit of sense. Hobgoblins are exceedingly rare within the goblin population, being randomly born by a one in ten thousand chance when a goblin gives birth, and hobgoblins supposedly can’t bear sons or daughters of their own.

As for the single hobgoblin, I spent a few minutes checking its pockets for any keys, and found naught. Afterwards, I followed it through the halls, taking note of any rooms it spent meaningful amounts of time in to check for the key later.

Eventually, the hobgoblin approached a room with giant double doors, pushing it in and announcing his presence with enough force to blow the hinges off the door. Immediately, a few goblins servants sighed and got to work on reattaching the door to its hinges. Apparently, this was a common enough occurrence that they had specifically kept a box of door-hinges to the side of the throne room.

In the room was a lone stone and bone chair for a throne, atop which sat a hobgoblin that dwarfed the first. The king, a C rank, if I had to guess.

The two argued back and forth about something. Perhaps in the future, I’ll be able to communicate with them with the help of the ancient bat things in my subspace, but at the moment I have no way of knowing exactly what they’re arguing about, given the language difference.

Of course, it doesn’t matter at the moment. All I need now is the key, and there it is… On a necklace around the neck of the king.

And based on the big-ass hammer the king has to the side of his throne, I’d wager he’s a warrior. Meaning if I try to phase the key into my subspace while it’s still on him, he’ll be able to detect my mana.

Of course.