On the other side of the stone, I consumed the two EXP shards, and the system let me know I leveled up.

[Congratulations! You have leveled up! Level 2àlevel 3. All stats increased by +3. SP + 6. Calculating Reward.]

[reward determined. Class ??? Reward: all resistances below level 4 increase one level. MP increases by 75 total. MP regen -5 minutes. Class Skill Lord reward: skill goblin language obtained, HP regeneration (minor) level up!]

[Class ??? resistance learned: spectre resistance Lv 2]

[Familiar has consumed one skill ticket.]

Why did he take one of my skill tickets? I tried calling out to Typhon, but there was no response. My reward from the ??? class was a lot less than what I expected, but it was still an interesting skill. I leveled it up to level 2 with my remaining skill ticket to see if I could talk my way out of a fight with the two nobles. I then appraised spectre resistance.

Resistance: spectre

Description: the superior form of multiple resistances, including poltergeist, undead, fear, and other resistances based upon the spectral body, similar to a ghost

It was kind of creepy, but it was a new resistance, none the less. I hope it didn't forebode future encounters with ghosts.

I walked towards the two nobles and began speaking in an odd language. My voice sounded rougher, with my pitch being lowered. The goblin nobles didn't respond at first.

"Who you? Person?"

"I'm Roberto. Nice to meet you."

"No nice. Must kill."

"Why must we fight?"

"Our blood boil. If snake see mouse, must eat."

"How about we fight as gentlemen, at least—a one-on-one fight."

"Just one defeat."

[Level up! Goblin language level increase! Level 3!]

When we finished talking, the goblin drew his sword. He began quick, with a consecutive strike slash. I > the first, > the second, and the third hit my shield. Seeing his slash not working, he prepared for his next strike. I didn't let him. I > in front of him before executing my own > >, but it was only a cover. After the third slash, I activated decompose on its sword, breaking it. Defenseless, I > > through its eye, causing it to disappear. I got an EXP shard from him, but, since I now need two hundred sixty points to advance, it didn't matter much.

"Do you still wish to fight me?" I inquired towards the remaining goblin noble.

"Must fight. I will call some friends."

The ground outside of the cavern behind us suddenly shook. A large crack opened, and from the crack emerged at least two hundred lesser goblins and weakened goblins. As they were climbing, I > my sword towards the noble. It hit the armor and broke it, but the noble was unharmed.

"Brothers and sisters, I have called here to prepare for feast. We kill, we eat human."

The fence disappeared, and all the goblins ran towards me. Seeing them closer, I could tell there were even some goblin mages and goblin knights in the group! Rather than run away, I > to the center of them all. I used 500MP for a larger, hotter area of effect fireball, Consuming many of the goblins. Suddenly, the large area of fire began swirling.

[You have obtained ingredient: vortex x2]

"Ingredient? What's that?" I asked the system

[Skill lord can combine ingredients with spells or skills to change their effect.]

[vortex has combined with fireball. Maximum rank for fireball has increased to rank B-]

[unknown interference. vortex has combined with elementary sword techniques. Error: level insufficient. Ancient sword techniques locked.]

"Did you do that?" I asked my ring

"No, that level is much higher than what I can do, even at maximum power. Once you gained the ingredient, the system automatically added it to the currently-in-effect fireball, causing it to act as a vacuum and bring everything towards itself. As for the sword, I may have some knowledge. It seems like the ancient techniques may be the sword style the kings and dukes use. I, as the lowest prince, would not have the opportunity to learn it."

"Prince? Duke? Are you royalty of some other planet?"

"No, but I cannot tell you yet. If you really must know, I can give you my name. It is Prince Seere, number seventy."

"Well, nice to meet you, your highness."

When we finished our conversation, I ran to get as much as I could from the defeated goblins. Surprisingly, the noble vanished. There were still a few knights left barely standing. I finished them off and sold their weapons. For all of the goblins I defeated, I gained enough MP recovery potion to completely restore my MP. I only gained 10 EXP shards, but they were they each only gave a single experience point—the same as the first floor. Looking at the door ahead of me, I saw a scene I had seen a few times before: a counter of remaining goblins. All that remained was the noble.

「goblin nobles defeated 1/2」

I couldn't advance without finding where he went. The entire ground was scorched by my magic, with nothing remaining anywhere. I went back through the tunnel and defeated some more monsters for a while. Finally, I returned to the room again. The counter, this time, had changed.

「goblin nobles defeated 2/3」

There was now both another noble and one defeated I did not know about. Finally, I saw him. He was back in the crevice, with not a sword but a spear. He was using the end of the said spear to try and make an indent in the rock behind him. I decided I'd recovered enough for another round, and I walked on lightning down to his level.

"Hello, Sir Goblin Noble. Do you wish to fight me?"

"Yes, human. We fight big. We win. But you power much."

[Level up! Goblin language level up! Level 4!]

It jumped straight to four, but I could understand the goblin a little better now.

"We don't want to be killed by your great power. Please, allow me to guide you to our chief."

He then tapped on the rock with his spear, and a cave appeared. After following him for many hours (along with rests for food), we arrived at a location more towards the beginning of the floor. It was the little alcove that looked like a blacksmith's place. Under the anvil, there was a trap door.

"You meet chief through here."

As he said so, my > kicked in. I rolled to the side, dodging the thrust of the spear.

"Why are you attacking me?" I asked

"You human. We must kill you."

I guess it's no use trying to reason with this noble anymore. I used my demon claw to cut through his stomach. He survived and, again, tried to thrust his spear into me. I > and used > to get closer to him, stabbing Blackmail into his eye. His spear, a basic spear, dropped as my reward. As I had never seen a spear in the dungeon before, I decided to store it instead of selling it.

I resolved to kill the chief hiding below. Maybe, I thought, I'd get a reward for doing so. I inserted my mana into the rune on the trap door, which was easy to decipher. It was just a rune that used mana to move a part of the door. I could have just smashed it, but this way was easier.

Below me, I could hear water dripping. Slowly, I descended about a meter or two before reaching the bottom. Here, there were many pits in the ground filled with water, which was slowly dripping from the ceiling. There were many passageways through this underground land. There were many different paths, each leading to darkness. I tried one, and I saw it split into even more paths.

Even with the speed of my boots, I was unable to find the exit for almost a week. I had killed quite a few lesser goblins, basic goblins, weakened goblins, and adult goblins on my way here. Finally, I saw some goblin knights.

"Goblin, what business to see chief?" Questioned the first goblin knight.

"Me? I'm not a goblin. I'm just here to see the chief. I was led by a goblin noble and told the chief wanted to see me."

"I'll check while he kills you," said the first goblin knight, disappearing through the rock.

The second one readied his sword and sprung. Lately, I've gained a lot of experience dealing with these annoying knights. I just used > with my demon claw and I defeated him. After waiting for a few minutes, I looked at the rock in front of me. I could see mana strings, so I took the fastest one and cut it with mana. The rock disappeared, revealing a room beyond. In this room, there was a fairly large goblin with a cane and blood-red eyes. He was sitting in a makeshift chair, with perhaps a hundred goblin knights surrounding him. Intermixed, I saw goblin mages. Closest to the chief were two goblin mages.

Noticing me, even though I had > enabled, the goblin chief began to speak—not in the language of the goblins but that of humans.

"Hello, young explorer. I am the goblin chieftain. While I am a bit disappointed my subordinates could not finish you off before you arrived, please know I mean you no harm."

"Yeah, right. Then why did they all try to kill me?" I thought

"I know you have killed many of my followers, but they are disposable. The dungeon will just keep making more of them for me. I usually do not trifle myself with such insignificant matters; however, I may need your assistance this time."

"My assistance? With what?"

"How dare you interrupt our chief!" a goblin knight spoke up.

He and some others drew their swords to fight me.

"Enough. He has a powerful spell which I've never seen before. Not your fire but your hand. That is why I called you here. You see, this place hasn't ever been found by any one of the countless worlds exploring this place. You are the first human to visit our home. From here, we direct the actions of our kind throughout this floor. This is our home. Lately, however, our enemies have been encroaching on us."

"What enemies? Other explorers? I haven't seen any."

"No. Not other explorers. Of course you haven't seen them. The dungeon isolates each of you from each other unless you are in parties. The enemies I speak of are the hobgoblins on the other side. I want you to defeat the hobgoblin lord ruling them. He is much weaker than me, but the dungeon prevents me from acting."

"Why does the dungeon do so? And what will I get if I listen to you? Why can't I just kill him myself? And you?"

"Of course I wouldn't ask for your assistance without reward. As you may have noticed, each floor has a maze, which takes a very long time to complete. In so doing, many suffer great injuries. I will lead you through much of the maze, towards the stronghold of the hobgoblin lord. I will also prevent you from being killed by my subjects."

"But then I wouldn't get the EXP."

"Now that you have seen me, I can make it so you won't be able to get any, but I won't do so if you agree. You see, if they attack you, this way, you can freely attack back. My goblin control may be at level ten, but, when away from me, they aren't absolutely controlled."

"Why can you interfere with the dungeon in such a way?"

"Of course, I can't tell you everything. It would get mad at me. All I can say is that I was not spawned in this dungeon. I was already a chieftain before I came here. Anything more than that is off limits. I hope, one day, you may have a way of freeing us. I have seen many with powers greater than yours nurturing young ones, but I have never seen one so powerful on their first try breaking through."

"OK. I'll agree. It'll be better than me wasting time."

"Of course, I knew you'd agree. To make it easier… this should do it."

[Skill: goblin language level up! Skill goblin language has reached max level! Level 10!]

"This skill you have is a very rare skill. I was able to upgrade it for you. Now, you can freely converse with our population. I did want to give you goblin control, but it seems that's also not allowed. Even if you are a skill lord, you can't get all of our race-specific skills."

At this point, he switched to the goblin language.

"I order those beneath me to not kill and to do no harm towards this human in front of me. Dissent will not be tolerated and will result in expulsion."

"Thank you," I replied in the goblin language.

"Now, Mercury, I trust you to please guide him safely to his destination."

"Yes, chieftain," one of the mages closest to the seat replied.

"You all have names?" I asked.

"No, only those I choose to name get the privilege. These three are Mercury, Jupiter, and Neptune. Previously, you defeated my top three on the knight side: Mars, Kurt, and Brad. Kurt and Brad will respawn, like always; however, Mars is gone for good since you killed him in our home" He ended on a melancholy note as he waved Mercury towards me.

"Hello, I'm Mercury," she said when she arrived in front of me. "Don't worry; I won't attack you as long as I can. It's the chieftain's orders, and I can't disobey. Please, follow me."

Mercury soon led me down an underground path. We passed by many different paths, and she always led me through the correct one. She even gave me a map! It still took two weeks to clear the portions of the maze, but it was relaxing not to have to fight constantly. Also, I got annoyed less, since I didn't constantly run into dead ends.

Finally, it appeared, we arrived at our destination.

"Here we are," Mercury said.

"And where is this?" I responded

"We are currently underneath the fourth room. The remaining four rooms are on the other side of the maze."

"Why can't we just go through them and arrive at the last one?"

"We goblins don't control these rooms. This area is that of the hobgoblins. Mainly, there are lesser hobgoblins above here."

"So I just need to beat these hobgoblins until I reach the fourth room? It shouldn't take too long."

"Without my guidance, it would take a very long time to get past the first room. This room should have very few monsters, but it is pitch black. It is impossible to know which way you are going, and the room itself messes with your head. Some explorers never get past this place."

"At least I can sense the enemies with my mana manipulation. That should help us."

Mercury proceeded to tap a seemingly random rock, and a hole opened above us. A spiral staircase made of stones immediately flew up from the ground, allowing us entrance. While we were walking up the stairs, I asked Mercury, "Why did the chieftain choose you out of all the goblins to lead me?"

"He hopes that I will, one day, secede him. If I come here, he believes the dungeon may reward me. "

"Good luck with that, as long as you don't attack me."

"As one of the top executives, even though the king's control is lessened here, I will not. I can control myself."

We finish our conversation while arriving at the top of the stairs. She's correct—there's no light anywhere. It's an easy problem for me to fix with >. Even with double the normal MP input, I could barely see a few meters in front of myself. The ground was saturated and muddy. Each step took effort to keep from sinking. After what seemed like forever, even though it was only one day, we made it past this room. I encountered six lesser hobgoblins and one hobgoblin during the day, but my mana strings picked up at least thirty more! At least I got an EXP shard.

"This is as far as I can go. There will be more hobgoblins on the other side. Be careful of the lava. it hurts."

"Bye, Mercury. I hope you succeed."

"Thank you. Now that my mission is fulfilled, we may be enemies next time we meet."

"If that's the case, then I welcome our battle. Let's try not to kill each other, though."

"No promises."

Like that, my first tangible companion in the dungeon left. At least I still have Seere, my ring. I took the chance to spread out my mana manipulation in the next room. I saw about forty lesser hobgoblins and one hobgoblin.

Using > and >, I silently approached the first one. It was then I noticed the room I was in. On both sides, there were large mountains. Coming down them was red hot liquid rocks. They weren't mountains but volcanoes! Active volcanoes spewing lava!

My burn resistance was only level four. I didn't think I'd survive if hit by the lava, so I had to tread lightly. Using my demon claw, I cut through the first lesser hobgoblin while throwing my sword at a second not too far away. It was in some lava, and, before I recalled Blackmail, I was worried that it might melt in the lava. Luckily, even after touching it, nothing happened. It was safe, and I was grateful. Noticing the one disappearing, another rose up from the lava. I cast >, which should have frozen it. Nothing happened. It continued its charge.

Like this, I was unable to think of how I could defeat so many of them. Defeating it, a peculiar item dropped. It was a brown cylinder with a powder inside that looked like it was from wood. I appraise it.

Item: range stabilization powder (rare)

Description: extends the range of one spell one hundred times, but the spell will fall to defenses half as powerful. Limited to one use

It was a good item, but it didn't help me. The goblin attacked, and I > and > > until it disappeared, earning me an EXP shard.

It was then I got an idea. I could only do it once, and I didn't know if it would help, but it was the best idea I could come up with. If it didn't work, it would just take me a lot longer to beat this room.

I spread the powder around me in a circle and prepared the ace I'd been waiting so long to use.

"By the laws of nature, I ask the element of ice to heed my call. By my authority, I, Roberto, command you, in tune with the elements, I request the power of ice."

Suddenly, I felt the surrounding getting much colder.

"This command shall be through the element itself, to pacify the fire's rage, I call forth the Absolute Frost!"

The surroundings turned white, and everything was frozen. The hobgoblins: frozen. The lava: frozen rocks. All was white, but, as soon as it began, it began to crack.

Quickly, I rushed to the first ones I could find. Within the next few seconds, I defeated four lesser hobgoblins. The ice disappeared into thin air, but the lava was not reforming. The core of the lava must have been so frozen that it can't restart. With my mana manipulation, I counted fourteen fewer hobgoblins. They must have been in the lava when it froze, suffocating them. Nineteen lesser hobgoblins and one hobgoblin was much easier. From the twenty-one defeated, I got five MP recovery potions and four EXP shards. I had enough MP to call forth the frost again; however, I did not think they would fall for the same trick twice.

I used > to spy on them. Four lesser hobgoblins were using shovels and spears to try and remove some of the rock that used to be lava. The easy prey would soon meet my blade. I threw Blackmail, hitting the first one in the neck, which alerted it to my presence. Too late for that goblin; it disappeared — three remaining in its group.

The three rushed towards me, the two spearmen in front and the remaining one behind them. I easily > the spears after dodging. Their momentum caused them to trip, and mine pushed me forwards. I easily used the claw to finish them, but the void took the EXP shard that was dropped.

One left in the group. I wanted to try > for the first time. I thought of it while staring into the remaining enemy's eyes. Soon, I heard the system. At the same time, I felt like I was in another space where only my mind was able to communicate.

[Control link established. Subordinate relationship created. Please give out your orders.]

Knowing I had to think this through, I paused a minute.

"Kill the remaining hobgoblins in this room. Do not attack me or any normal goblins while doing so. When done, find me and look into my eyes. Obey further orders I give you at a later time."

[Please confirm orders.]

"Confirm!"

I returned to reality, and the lesser hobgoblin was starting its work. It retrieved a spear from its fallen comrade and went away to find the rest.

A day had passed since them. I had defeated six lone lesser hobgoblins, but, during that time, I could sense four more being spawned. It was offset, though, by my subordinate who defeated five. I was about to kill another one when I heard the system.

[Subordinate lesser hobgoblin has been killed. Thought control link severed. Recovering items.]

The spear appeared in my inventory, which I sold. Next, an EXP shard and MP recovery potion appeared. I drank the potion to restore my MP from using the thought control and consumed the shard. Easily finished with that, I decided thought control was a fun magic. I wanted to try again, so, instead of killing, I repeated the same procedure as yesterday, with the same orders. I wanted to see its ability to kill, so, during that day, I only killed a single goblin. It killed four and four spawned.

Using my mana manipulation, I easily found where it was. With only a few minutes left until it needed more MP, I was going to finish it off. When I arrived, it had just killed a lesser hobgoblin. The one next to the fallen one was also attacking my subordinate. As I watched, the system told me the obvious.

[Subordinate lesser hobgoblin has been killed. Thought control link severed. Recovering items.]

I got an old bow. After that, I easily > the wounded hobgoblin. Atop the mountains, I saw two archers. They couldn't hit me, but I could > hit them.

Easily, they were defeated. My shield wasn't even needed!

I spent a few hours looking for the remaining ones, not finding them. I had an idea, so I > the first mountain and looked inside. There, I saw two of the remaining four. They had pickaxes and were attempting to bring the lava back. I could see that they were close by the small, red pockets. I didn't want to be anywhere near either mountain when they exploded! Taking the opportunity, I got close to them. Being so close, I noticed, during the time when the lava was all around, my fire affinity rose twelve percent. I used the demon claw to chop off their heads. I was on my way to the next mountain when I heard a noise.

It was a low rumbling noise. Looking at the volcano, I saw a giant rock being lifted into the air, along with a thick cloud of smoke and many molten rock pieces. Lava began flowing from the volcano at the same time, instantly heating up the atmosphere.

With my mana manipulation, I noticed the two goblins who must have been assigned there no longer registered. I guess they must have been hit by the rocks. Only the hobgoblin remained, but I wasn't safe.

The rocks everywhere threatened to undermine my shield, killing me off. I > as far as I could and started running, trying to > the rocks. The haze grew thick, lessening my vision. It was getting harder and harder to stay away from the volcanic contents. Even if I used >, it would just rain down frozen rocks instead of molten ones—not much better.

Suddenly, a giant rock came hurling towards me. There was no way I could dodge it.