The tunnel opens up, and as I round a corner, I come into a much better lit main chamber. I only see three more goblins as I enter. The goblin lieutenant has already spotted me and warns one of the other goblins. Together they charge me. The third is down on all fours in a dark corner facing away, and still not aware of me. I launch my spear at the lieutenant. He sees it coming, but does not manage to fully dodge it. It pierces his shoulder. He stops, but he is still alive.

The other goblin reaches me. I dodge his crude club, and slam a stone axe into the side of his skull. It literally cracks on impact. I am still not used to how much stronger I am. A lot less strength would have been needed. I notice that the lieutenant is advancing towards me again. Not good, distracted by the previous goblin's popping head I have lost momentum.

Expecting other goblins to come any time, I charge the lieutenant determined to take him down quickly. I dodge and sidestep two thrusts from his metal knife. That is going to be mine! Using less force than previously I take down the heavily injured goblin and turn to the last one in the corner. He still hasn't looked up!

What is he distracted by? Grabbing my new metal knife I quietly and quickly come up behind him. With one hand grabbing most of his face and the other slitting his throat I make quick work of him. Looking down I now see what distracted him. It is a young woman, a human woman.

She is clearly a prisoner. Her eyes are glazed over. She is clearly alive, very messed up but alive. She is not showing much of a response though. She might only be semi-conscious due to her shocking experience. Coming to my senses I check my surroundings looking for another tunnel. All I find is a number of baby goblins in the corner of the cave.

I say baby, but there is nothing cute about them. All are naked mini version of the goblins I have seen. No women though. could it be that the human girl gave birth to these. could it be that there are no goblin women. Mr Analyze suddenly starts giving me some answers. Turn out that all goblins are male, or to say it another way, there is no male or female goblin, just goblin. Each goblin carries with him all the genetic material to reproduce. He just needs a womb to sow his complete seed in.

I suddenly realize why I detested the goblins from the start. They are parasites, unable to multiply without exploiting other races. No wonder they are enemies to all, as my analyze skill implied at my first assessment. They are more like a pest to be exterminated. With this in mind I start dashing the mini-goblins to pieces. I refuse to think of them as babies. It would make them too human.

Having determined that the goblin extermination of this nest is complete I store all their loot. To be fair, most of the loot was probably the hobgoblin's as I find a lot more than I would have expected. The hobgoblin seems to have his own wardrobe. No wonder he was the only one to wear proper clothes. When done I grab a blanket from the loot and cover the young woman. She hasn't moved at all, but when I guide her she stands up and follows me. She acts like a robot, her real mind and soul seems buried deep below.

The walk back to my home is slow. In the light I can see the woman better. She isn't much more than a girl. Analyze bring up a menu for her like my own. It has a lot of blanks, but it tells me that she is 18 years old. Judging from her list of skills, she has been through a lot. They are pretty much all related to enduring the harsh life of a goblin brood mother.

I now notice that she has a small bump. She looks to be pregnant with a goblin child. Wonder how she feel about that, if she is still able to feel. My first encounter with a human wasn't as sweet as I had hoped, but all I can do is take care of her and maybe she will recover. I don't know much about how the mind works, or how it deal with great trauma. If her mind recovers, there is still hope for her to have a normal life, but if it doesn't...