its hotttt Gabla said while covering her body with both hands from the baking savanna sun. It Had only been three hours since we got here and she had already stripped out of all the clothing , we had prepared when in the goblin forest. Normally i would find it just to reprimand her but i had also stripped and was walking around shirtless and with pants rolled up swatting away all of the native bug wildlife. This was horrible and Gabla agreed, the only one who didn't have any problems was Zhilsiza who was effortlessly marching forward.

"Didn't you want to see the world? Don't tell me this is all your resolve is worth" He said to Gabla

I don't know if the heat and humidity had a role to play in this , but Gabla was easily provoked and flew off the handles.

"HAAAAAAAH!?!?! The Glorified Lizard is talking???" she said with a stereotypical thug mean mug on her face

unfazed Zhilsiza simply continued his march "say what you will"

"grrrrrrrrrr" was all Gabla could muster before giving into the heat and collapsing dead into the dirt.

"Gabla!" i said while rushing over here and putting some water from the container on her face .Good thing we stock piled on water or things would be dire. She was unresponsive but we had to keep going , we could be attacked at any moment .I wanted to pick her up but... but she was SWEATY! OK seriously imagine picking someone up who was absolutely soaking in sweat, i was being petty but it was disgusting.

"Zhil any chance she could take a ride on your back?"

"She stinks of sweat, id rather not "

Sigh ,swallowing my hygiene i picked her up and we continued our hike. Good thing she was a goblin or else this wouldn't be possible. A few moments later i heard "p-p-Put me in the bag" Looking down i see a half awake Gabla spacing out.

"uh ok"

Putting her in the bag i saw her burry herself into the backpack .Hearing some scuffing and scrapping i saw her emerge but for some reason only the top 1/3 of her. Using the cover of the backpack as a sun umbrella she said

"AHHHH this is the life"

"is that right? " i said as i continued to lug her around. There was no need for me to tell her anything i wasn't her pops and she was grown. If she couldn't take the heat as a her team mate i had to make up for her shortcomings. Walking for about 2 more hours we saw something that looked like a river, it was a miracle we managed to avoid most of the monsters but i guess this is where they all where gathered.

On the River line Hordes of monsters rats were located located on the rocks and sides of the river, some of the more aquatic hippo like creatures were gate keeping the waters. If any sick or young would wonder too far from their mothers they would be snatched up by the jaws of death. Poking her head from out of the bag Gabla said "Whoaaa look at all the people"

"They're all distracted this is a good time to ambush them" Zhil debated

"There might be too many" i said "wouldn't they all just jump on us?"

" Most likely but they're all a low levels and lesser species, i don't think they will pose much of a threat "

Gabla wanted to say something but paused... "are you really going to murder all of those people? I mean they aren't really doing anything... "

Is that how Gabla saw this? It would make sense she was a monster like they were , but i needed experience what choice did i have. Now that i think about it what was the value of their life, did they have goals and ambitions or did that ever even matter. I mean humans killed other humans who most certainly had both , death was just the way of the world .If i stayed in this dungeon long enough something in me might change to become unrecognize able, or maybe i was just becoming a true adult unsheltered from all harsh realities.

While stuck in my mind Zhil said to Gabla " are you more of an idiot all of a sudden? they would kill you if given proper reason , as we shall do to them .Don't forget you are not a monster anymore but a servant, therefore you may look the same but are not the same. Keep your sense of morality to yourself and focus on not dying."

"Guess your right you overgrown lizard, so what do you suggest we do?"

She accepted that fast , the only one here with a actually aversion to violence here seemed to be me. Looking back at my actions to not kill the mushroom and slime on the first floor, i realized that i wasn't very used to the combatant role. I needed to get with the program either i was escaping this dungeon or i was not ,killing as necessary.

"Well you know i am a dragon, so i can breath fire breath on them."

"We know that lizardshit but isn't there like wayy to many?" Gabla replied

"Zhilsiza! is my name and no dragons convert the very environment itself into our elemental breaths, its part of the reason you've never seen a dragon run out of breath .In other words i have infinite fire breath "

"Is it that simple i asked Zhil?"

"They're low ranks so yes we can manage with brute force alone , you yourself don't need to do any fighting. If anything you can act like a scout for instance if something is sneaking up behind me you can message me. Since we speak telepathically it will be silent and not reveal your location"

Zhil really was a natural born predator.

"Ok i understand" Looking at a tree in the slight distance i said " I'm going to climb that tree with Gabla on my back and she can shoot them from up there , and you'll run into the fray and burn them, is that fine with you?"

"Yes"

Slowing sneaking off next to the tree i made sure there were no unwanted guest like snakes or harpies already nesting .When i saw the coast was clear i began climbing until i reached the top of a 8 meter tall tree .It was mostly brown branches but that would have to act as cover .Good thing i wasn't wearing anything but shades of brown anyway.

Gabla Took out her rifle pittle sticks or was it pop stick... lets just call it the stick and positioned it with my right shoulder as its balancing mount .Lets not forget that she was still inside the bag , one of the few benefits of being pint sized.

"Don't move and sorry about your ears"

My ears? no idea what she was talking about but we had to get this show on the road Zhil was already close enough to where he was in fire breath range.

"Just say the words" Zhil's voice resonated in my brain

Guess its better to clean the monsters on the shore before they were aware.

FireBreath!!! i thought and in sync Zhil let out a mean bombardment of flame turning at least half of the non aquatic residences into burnt flesh

+7% essance

"Intruder!"

"Mom, DAD?!" some rat child creature cried out

"Who goes there!"

All the mostly stand offish monsters were now on full alert and were looking for a culprit , to maim i would suppose.

Pop Boom! Pop Boom! The stick exploded with sound into my unsuspecting right ear ,I almost lost my balance falling from the tree.

"Dont fall! " she reminded me

Pop Boom! and another fire breath finished off the rest of the once living monsters

+7% essence

I can see now why she apologized for my ear , that aside i was 14% closer till rank D- so that was exciting .We could use the The monster rats that Zhil didn't burn as a food, since we needed to eat eventually .Hope they didn't carry any parasites or we'd be screwed. The aquatic monsters were fine with watching to see what we would leave behind knowing not to snatch up one of the bodies before, whatever killed it took its fair share. Though the cruel thing about fate is even if they were cautious the best way to stay safe was just to leave the area, once they ate the bodies they would only be burned from the inside by corrupt.

Apparently not all the creatures were as smart as the aquatics ones because something instantly dashed into the middle of the field of burnt bodies.

ROARRRRR a massive honey badger like creature made its appearance , was this a monster or part of the wildlife .It stood in the middle of its stolen kills only for it to make sporadic movement then join the rest of the bodies. Seeing the demise of the badger creatures the rest of the aquatic monsters quickly retreated.

+10% essence

Did i just witness natural selection with my own two eyes? That was interesting could we use the dead bodies of monsters we've previously killed as bait? This could improve hunting efficiency by a ton and lower causalities.

"Did you guys see that?" i asked the rest of the crew

"How we totally rocked them? Couldn't miss it " Gabla responded happily almost to the point of shouting

"Yes, but no. I think we can use the dead bodies as bait to lure in more monsters and they'll die from Zhils corrupt passive. If we just leave the bodies there we might be able to gain passive experience from monsters who don't understand why there are so many dead bodies around."

" as expected from my summoner that would be a great idea for the lower levels of this dungeon... though i doubt it would work the higher we got not all of us are that dumb. "

In a group decision we decided to leave all the bodies there, even the edible ones. It would plant the seed of doubt that some of them were salvageable potentially drawing in monsters for longer. We moved on and Gabla was still in the bag.

"How long are you planning to stay in that bag?" I asked her , she wasn't heavy but was this ok?

"Till it isn't so hot Goblin skin dries easily in the sun .Don't look down on me because you were born with a higher constitution then me"

I suppose that's something i couldn't have known being human and all.

"Oh sorry i didn't know"

"it's ok i wouldn't expect a human to know these things"

6 hours later

The sun was still high in the sky... don't tell me this was a region of constant sun.

"you doing ok in there?" i asked Gabla. We did some hunting and gained some passive exp so now i was 67% of the way towards rank D- but Gabla was taking this the worst out of all of us, even in the bag.

no response , don't tell me she died

"I'm ok just sweating up a storm, i might need to use the water to take a bath."

"A bath? wouldn't it just be better to shower in the river?"

"Dude I'm a 3 and a half foot tall goblin anything that wanted to eat me would have no problem drowning me, plus the current itself might even take me away. You wouldn't want your sweet team mate to get swept away would you"

"Its your fault for being so weak" Zhil added

"I was born this way! and i was talking to Ali"

I wouldn't want her to get swept away by the current, we could always find more water but we couldn't always find more Gablas.

"ok so where do you want to bathe?"

"under a tree preferably i want the cool shade and it would provide some cover"

We continued walking till we found a generic enough looking tree

"This will do" Gabla said as she jumped out of the backpack already naked with the spatial jug in her hand

"Tada!"

"ahhhh" i said covering my eyes trying not to look

"stop being such a pansy, you better look!"

"For once i agree, your aversion to women of similar bone structure is strange. I thought most men were fond of that sort of thing " Zhil said

"I'm being respectful!" i said this went against what i was raised to believe

"Respectful how I'm 29 and your like 20 I'm the older one. What if something drags me away while your not looking did you forget im a prey item to anything bigger then me?"

I tried not to blush but the posing Gabla was making it difficult

"What about your dignity and respect as a lady?"

"The fuck are you talking about all your doing is watching me bathe, trying not to get eaten here remember? "

Was i over reacting ? I mean she was just trying to be as safe as possible in a foreign land which i understood and i did tell her dad i would protect her. Un-shielding my eyes i tried not to focus to hard on her overall body but scan the area behind her for danger

"Finally now lets get started"

splash scrub scrub scrub splash

...

"... Ali your staring at my breast hard as fuck...I should've known you are a young man and you've only had a dragon to keep you company all this time. Seeing me must've sent you brain into overload , no wonder you didn't want to look . You didn't know if you couldn't control yourself did you. "

I could see a smug gleam in her eye "Luckily for you i am merciful god and will allow you to gaze upon my voluptuous green meadow "

It was embarrassing to say but i a complete virgin and this was the first time i ever seen a girl naked other then my mom .As a F ranker i really wasn't popular with the ladies. I wanted to scan the horizon for danger but my eyes just wouldn't budge.

"T-t-Thank you?" god i was stuttering

I didn't know how to feel the first girl that i would see would be a party member who was in no doubt toying with me.Not only that but this went against my morals, but she did give her consent right? NO! what is wrong with me , this situation was terrible i didn't want to take advantage.

"Dude... your dick is rock as hell, don't have a aneurysm I'm flattered but its just breast .Wait could it be Ali is a virgin? "

Looking down my second head was giving me a magical thumbs up

"I am so what?" I said reactively

"Oh now i see why you cant handle some breast meat," She said while continuing to wash up more proactively "I'm surprised though don't Humans usually have sex by your age?"

"Its none of your business" i said trying not to get embarrassed anymore

"Awww I'm sorry if i overloaded your poor virgin dick!"

She was clearly enjoying this, which pissed me off. She was trying to test my patients .Taking a deep breath i steeled my resolve, there was no way i was going to be putty in her hands like this.

" I WILL NOT BE TEASED BY THIS SHORTSTACK GOBLIN!!!"

"That's my summoner! you wont be defeated by a mere goblin" Zhil echoed from the tree, i had no idea if he really even understood what that even meant, but the extra support was what i needed at this moment.

"AHHHHHHHHH" i mustered all my power to forcefully return to flaccid

"ok geeze stop screaming you're going to attract monsters , I'm almost done anyway." Putting on a new set of clothing that was instantly dampified by her wet skin she said "ahh this is the life" and got back into the backpack.

"We can go now " she said from inside the pack

Not arguing i simply picked her up and we continued on our way, i should've taken a shower as well but given the situation my mind just wasn't focused on that. We could see monsters in the distance but they were out of range, meaning it would take to much effort to pursue just for 1% or 2% essence. Mhhh or where they ? I think i thought of something useful for Gabla to do.

"Hey Gabla,i have a job for you"

"sure!" she said popping out of the bag

"Since you have no way to handle walk in the sun i thought why not act as a moving sentry? "

"Moving sentry?"

" essentially you could use my shoulder as a rifle rest and shoot any monster you see in the distance along with the corrupted meat that we left at that water hole , it would be a active way for us to gain some essence. "

"I could do that but your moving wouldn't that just be a waste of bullets? "

"I'm walking and only do it if you can"

Contemplating my words for a few minutes she pulled out the stick. Placing some pieces of cloth on my shoulder, then placed the rifle on that cloth.

"This should help with stability, I'm not Hawkeye i can't hit the targets while your moving .Well not yet anyway but every time I'm about to shoot ill tell you and you can just stop moving"

"That work's"

2 hours later

Can you guess what we did? walking , walking and some more walking. I had only gotten 3 more essence points landing me a total of 70% of the way towards rank D-. My ranking up was slowing down, The monsters in the area were getting the memo to avoid this party, they were getting smarter. This told me a couple things that even though I'm calling them monsters which they are ,they could learn and rather quickly too .In the dungeons that I'm used to the monsters were dumb and never changed .Is this what he meant by each level it would get progressively harder .Not only that but the tainted meat strategy would eventually stop working.

I know Zhil said that earlier but its always different to see it with your own eyes.

We were standing in the middle of would looked like to be a plain of yellow tall grass , this was as perfect place that were we could get ambushed.

"stay on high alert"

step step... STOP! in front of me was a gigantic lion creature with the front body of a lizard and i almost stepped on its perfectly blended in grass. Zhil still hadn't noticed it yet but i had to find a way to get his attention without waking the lion lizard thing. Oh wait telepathy

"Zhil!! dont move"

"Yes sir... why?"

"Look to your left"

"I see , as expected of my summoner, lets strike while its asleep!"

We could do that couldn't we. I saw a big monster but my only instinct was on how to get the F outta there.

"Good plan, how do we tell Gabla?"

"We don't ,If the goblin was too oafish to witness the beast that could potentially maim her then she would only act as a hindrance."

"Zhil you didn't notice it either..."

"SILENCE! still we are already in the hornets nest its best to just attack, she will benefit in essence regardless. Though the decision is up to you"

He was right we were already much to close for Gabla to be of use ,The Creature probably had good hearing like the golem if i made any sudden movement and the hybrid woke up i would have no way of escaping , we needed to act now.

"Ok direct the fire breath at its face we can make this quick and simple, lets ensure it never even awakes from its sleep."

"roger"

Zhil began his death by fire when suddenly the creature jumped to its feat leaping backwards three times putting ample distance between us and it.

"WOAH Ali there's a lizard-Lion!" Gabla exclaimed while focusing her rifle on the foe

"Shoot it then!"

Boom!

Gabla snapped to her senses loaded her chamber and shot towards the demi lion.

Clank was the sound of it deflecting the bullet with its Lizard scale Front fore-limbs. All that shown for her effort was a slight singe on the spot .

Roaaaaar! the roar was deafening ,Gabla having more sensitive ears then i , had to hold her ears but even then i could see her bleeding from them.

"My ears , oh god make it stop"

"Zhil its not moving torch it while its roaring"

"Yes!"

Fire breath! Hot air spewed next to my face , forcing me to protect my eyes

"Did we get it?"

Roaar!!

i Opened my watering eyes to see the creature start to make a dash for me, This was bad i was had the lowest hit points on the team other then Gabla.It chose to swipe its massive claws trying to decapitated both me and Gabla in a single swipe.

FLOOOSH Zhil sent another firebreath that was noticeably weaker in the direction of the lion making it switch its intentions mid flight to block the incoming damage. Unlike Gablas rifle Zhilas breath left the creature screeching in pain but still not dead. This had to be the boss creatures or we would have to spend to reevaluating whether or not we we're too weak. Just like its intentions , it changed its opponent viewing Zhil as the most dangerous threat in the space.

SCREEECH! Zhil tried to roar but his voice just wasn't loud or intimadating enough yet but I'm sure that would come with age, nonetheless the beast acknowledges his efforts with his own Roar

"Gabla! aim for its head"

"My ears hurt i dont know if i can"

"Wasn't the last thing you said to your dad was you were going to be the strongest goblin to ever live? Was that just a bullshit lie!?"

She needed to shoot this thing while it was focused on its honor battle with Zhil or we we're all going to end up dead .Zhil was acting tough but one swipe of that's things claws and Zhil was going back to the spirit realm , no doubts about it.

"Damn it ! when you put it like that " She lock and loaded her rifle with her ears still bleeding and landed a back of the head back hand. Only this back hand was delivered with lead. Still the lion hybrid wasn't dead and that bullet seemed to annoy it more then do any damage. This minor distraction was all the time me and Zhill needed to Fire a joint fire breath burning all its fur and scales of leaving a blubbering mass of flesh. It was still alive but unrecognizable , it was just a fragment of the beast that it was seconds ago , producing a foul flesh burnt odor that attracted vulture monsters.

ROOAR rooar r- With its finally breath it tried to reclaim its former dignity but failed collapsing and finally dying

+10% essence

That was def the boss or at least i hoped it was , the door to the next floor was no where to be seen. That even begged the question of if we wanted to make a exit of this floor or not .I was still rank D and that fight was almost my last. The part mostly Gabla was wounded and we needed to recoup and lick our wounds.

"This corpse stinks like hell lets get out of here " Gabla was the first to break the silence

"Haha i agree... are you ok by the way? your ears were bleeding"

"Yeah don't worry about a small injury like that, goblins are a sub species of ogres in a few hours i should be good as new".

"So like super regeneration abilities that was good to hear."

Walking away from the dead lion we sat together in a huddle me , the backpac-Gabla and Zhilsiza. The floor was hot and bug ridden plus i still hadn't eaten anything but i would just have to tough it out .

"Do you guys think that was the boss of this floor?"

"I believe so" Zhil said

" If that wasn't were screwed ,at our current level i don't think we can handle anything stronger then that. "

I was with her on that one. Lets do some information relaying

"How close are you two to ranking up?"

"We all share the same rank dude technically I'm you servant remember?"

"Gabla is correct, if you focused you could tell but if you must hear me speak it then i am 80% towards rank D-"

That was something i didn't know , there weren't any summoners back in Lunka, all of this was falling on new ears.

"If that's the case do you guys want to hunt the wildlife in the area before we left this floor? I need to eat and Hitting Rank D- before we went to floor 3 wouldn't hurt would it?"

With a unanimous vote we all agreed to hit rank D- before we left this floor .

I'll spare you all of the details but we basically went around looking for things to kill, some of them flew , some of them swam, some even ran but ultimately we shot or burned them. Nothing was as strong as the lion-lizard hybrid we faced earlier so we could only come to the conclusion that , that was the boss of of this level.

(99% essence)

We we're extremely close to hitting rank D- BUT sadly i think we hunted all the monsters on the floor.

"ALI ,ZHIL LOOK AT THAT!"

"No need to shout and look at what?"

shaking her head Gabla exclaimed " I SHOUT IF I WANT TO SHOUT AND LOOK THERE ARE TWO DOORS!"

Im not going to challenge her to a shouting contest , its best to ignore any provocations

"oh wait you guys cant see as far as i can , can you? anyway instead of one door there are two doors "

"well then lead the way"

Moving half a mile west and about 2km north we arrived at two dungeon doors. The door on the right was cold to the touch and made from ice. It was in the daunting heat of the savanna but stood resolutely as if made of everlasting ice. The door on the left was pure white made but had feathers sprinkles around the top along with a golden jewel that made the door seem to be exquisitely crafted. I never had the though until now but what if all dungeons doors didn't just lead 1 floor up, we would never have any way of finding out what floor it actually was. There was always the dungeon floor indicator but knowing that i was controlled by the dungeon lord made it information that could always be tampered with, i didn't trust it.

Looking around i couldn't see a creature in sight, the only option we had was forward.

"What door do you guys suppose we go through?"

Speaking up Zhil said " If i had to guess neither doors lead to floor 3... If we're going for what is the most tolerable for our part, probably the feather covered door. The ice door seems to at least be floor 10 or above. "

Floor 10!? We would die immediately .The level was way to high and the terrain itself would be brutal

"And what do you reckon the Feather the door level is?"

"Judging by the spirit pressure being released from the door probably about floor 5 or 6"

Floor 5 or 6 was a lot better then 10 and above but that was still a huge jump either way seemed to be a suicide mission.

"Lets go with the feather door then i'm tired of being hot all the time, maybe it has feathers for chicken! " Gabla said in a joking manner

It was nice having her around to relieve some of the presssure .This really wasn't a joke though but we don't have much of a choice. We should go with the lesser of two evils even if that hope was small it was best to grasp for straws.

"Ok lets do this"

Walking toward i used all my strength to push open a door that wasn't in the slightest light as a feather. A blinding white light encapsulated me and the party leading us into a city!?