(Joat’s POV)

Wow, this is hell of a cave

You have entered the Raid Instance: King's CaveAn expansive cave where the noble caste of the goblins reside, within old Dwarven dwellings

True to that fact, there are a number of rectangular houses, with golden painted walls that have been chipped by time and probably the goblins, in view.

I can see 11 buildings; ranging from the small basic rectangles closest to me to the large, castle-like mansion with 4 towers and a large spiral centre that is on the furthest edge of the cave. Not to mention the iconic bearded dwarf faces that is the top of each tower as well as the gate(the door being its mouth).

The design of the cave itself is a bit strange; the buildings are all in a ring on the outside of the cave, as they’re embedded in the walls and in the centre is a huge circular space with a fountain in the middle.

I can see the fountain, but it’s a bit of a weird fountain because it is shaped in the pair of two hands cupped together and raised to the sky. I suppose water would come from the middle, but no water of the sort is spilling out.

The crowd in question is bustling about doing things? I’m not really sure what they’re doing…

“KILL”

…

..

.

Well now im sure?

I ready myself to fight, but…no goblins come charging towards me…o..k?

“YOU’RE WOMEN ARE MINE!”

“DIE YOU BASTARD”

“EAT ‘IS FACE OFF”

…

..

.

Oh! So it’s like that then.

Among the throngs of goblins are ones fighting over women…again.

This is exactly like what happened in the guard room…is this part of the trial too? Or is this just in the daily life of the noble goblins?

I *tsk* at not asking Rakartkas about the trial in more detail because that may have helped with my planning somewhat.

Well nothing I can do about that now, back to figuring out what’s happening.

It seems like the goblins are fighting over their women again and when I glance at the crowds, they are either watching or just ignoring the fights…although it’s only the women who are ignoring the fights.

Checking those women, eugh, I do see that they aren’t well dressed and their skin is blemished with bruises and cuts…so they’re the ‘guard’ women then, or well slaves in this case.

It’s not only one fight either…I do hear many different insults going out, mostly from the crowds.

It’s almost like a little spectacle…Kind of like we are right now to quite a few of them

“Who is that?”

“Never seen ‘im before”

“He’s a hobgoblin!”

“Can he be?”

“But who are the ones behind him?”

Those are just some of the questions I catch wind of but from that I can guess they’re questions about my hobgobliness and my prisoners.

Time to get to work.

Lightly brushing Squirrel off, who was holding my arm somehow, I saunter towards the crowds.

The fights die down as the others hush them and by the time I’m face to face with the front of the crowd, it’s completely silent.

“I AM JOAT, coming back from the trial that began 4 years ago. I am here to deliver these prisoners and well...find a house to relax in”

I'm not going to tell them that i'm here to kill their lord am I?

…Any reactions?

It takes them a couple of seconds to react but it’s mostly just nods of the heads stating that they do understand what I’m doing.

“The lord is busy at the moment, so why don’t you relax at mine” A stout goblin wearing a fading yet embroidered cloak steps out of the crowd with a slight bow

Ah so there are goblins with some semblance of intelligence.

I can see the death glares this goblin gets from many of the others in the crowd and as some try to step out to give offers I nod.

“Lead the way”

He grins and hurriedly moves and beckons for me to follow, leaving the growling crowd behind.

As I’m walking away, I hear the fights resume, with a lot more fervor.

The goblin leads us to a fairly large house…well more like a mansion.

The exterior is modest with only some golden colouring on the pillars and door frame, however it is very wide.

Oddly enough, it’s only 1 floor, but then again this is a Dwarven house…maybe they didn’t like heights?

He goes to the gate before giving it a curt knock.

*Creak*

The door slides open, revealing a group of female goblins pushing the door open.

“Come inside, and we will feast on some fresh blood”

He emphasized the ‘we’ too much for my liking there.

Guys, be prepared for an ambush

I feel they’re confused glances on my back but they really shouldn’t be confused, not with the obviousness of that statement.

Walking through the doors…is a house full of women(?)

They have little strips of cloth around the chest area, so I’m guessing they’re women.

Ignoring the mass of about 40 women who are busy cleaning, I look at the room that they are cleaning. It’s just a giant rectangle, with broken down walls between rooms.

There’s nothing in these supposed rooms, just a few crates in the corner.

“So what is this room?”

The goblin stops and turns around, looking mildly impatient.

“This building is the guild of merchants and this is our warehouse”

…Well it is the size of a warehouse…but there’s nothing in it.

Anyways, he moves on and I follow. Maybe there might actually be something in this place.

He walks straight across the width of the warehouse and ends up at a wooden door, which some gobliness’ stop cleaning and hurry to open for him.

Walking through the open doors after him, I’m in a corridor which looks more like a delicately carved tunnel. Though scratch marks litter the surrounding walls.

“So, how many merchants are there in this guild of merchants?”

“Around” He turns and smirks “6000”

…

..

.

Well….this is certainly going to be interesting and I think I may be a little screwed

“Wow, there are a lot of you, though you must have many slaves to tend to your needs”

“Hah! True, we are nobles after all. They number close to 10,000 but they’ve all been trained very well”

He emphasized the word ‘trained’…so I’m guessing those seeds I planted earlier aren’t going to grow much...I think a little screwed became very screwed…

Everyone, I’m going to teach you how to get Brutality; it gives 2:1 attk:points and we’re going to need it. When the fight starts, kill by biting, tearing and other brutal ways of killing and add that stat as quick as possible

I can feel the collective shiver behind me from quite a few of the people; even Squirrel loosens her grip on my arm somewhat. But I suspect at least one of them already had that stat.

We reach the end of the cave-like corridor and the goblin continues walking through a more refined-looking corridor, going past a large number of closed doors.

Listening slightly at each door, I hear a collection of…interesting sounds…Well they do have slaves…and they happen to be female.

Though I swear I just heard two women there…

ANYWAYS. Not the time to be exploring goblin paradise(?) as I’m about 100% sure I’m walking into an ambush.

He leads us to some rusting metal doors and some slaves, who were about the corridor, open it for him.

One collapses after straining to open the door and the goblin stops and kicks her a couple of times before she stands back up.

He then walks into the next room.

Looking at the one who just got kicked a couple of times, I notice she’s staring right at me, in recognition?

Oh!

I slowly walk past, glance at her, tap the door and motion backwards. She nods.

Hehe, in a field of fruits, all it takes is one weed to mess things up.

Entering the room, I see it to be a giant room, once again, but this time a stone table, slightly chipped but still well carved, furnished with chairs, a dusty cloth and some cutlery.

Oooh! Cutlery!

The goblin turns around and gives a little bow

“I thought you would be hungry and since it is time to eat, I’ll gather the others. Then we shall have some fresh blood no?”

Couldn’t have made it more obvious…not the greatest merchant out there are you?

“I’m looking forward to it” I give him my best smile

Fool.

He leaves, looking happy with himself and shuts the door behind him.

Moving to the table, I take the head of the table and sit comfortable in my stone chair, well as comfortable as I can get on stone, which isn’t very.

Everyone else looks mildly perplexed, since they’ve gone into a combat pose while I’ve just gone and sat down.

“What are you doing Joat. You said they’re going to attack us” DillyDally points his finger at me accusingly

“True, but they’ve given us time to prepare, the fools”

“Prepare what Boss?”

To that I just smile

…

…

(Thakarak’s POV)

Heheh hahah HAHAHAH!

THAT FOOL, MORON, IDIOT!

He fell into my trap so easily! And now I, the mighty Thakarak, leader of the guild of merchant’s shall gain all the glory for the lord!

And with glory comes many things that I like; like money, women and best of all: to be able to look down at that bastard Torg, thinking he’s all high and mighty with his guild of weapons. Ptah

Also, he brought those delicious looking prisoners, especially that squirrel…mmm, I like squirrels; they’re feet are especially delicious.

Craving later, must gather all my guildsmen and then have some fresh blood hihihihi.

…

…

(Joat’s POV)

“I’m actually getting hungry now” The Gazelle-beastman, Yinroh complains.

“Really? We’re in the middle of enemy territory and you’re thinking about food” The Kudu-beastman, Snorh retorts back

“Guys, stop fighting and concentrate” our Zebra-beastman, SirStripy gives them a knock over the head with his hands.

“Oww” the two of them simultaneously say it.

I honestly would’ve said both Yinroh and Snorh are gazelle’s but apparently, if the antlers are more S shaped then that is typical of a Kudu…which is some relative of the straight antler gazelle…

Some useful, random information I got from Snorh, since he didn’t like me calling them gazelle brothers….shouldn’t have chosen an animal that isn’t mainstream.

Anyways, the two have their respective horns, and of course their tails.

SirStripy has his lovely black mane as his hair, which makes him looks quite like a punk rockstar, and also a nice black and white tail…

The three of them seem to know eachother pretty well, which is useful I guess?

Though they don’t seem as close as the Zz’s.

“Why do we have to use our horns again?” Yinroh continues his complaints

“Because we’re sharpening them dumbass” Snorh retorts once again

“Oh we were? I thought we we’r-“

“-You idiot”

“Hey, Stripy! Snorh’s being mean again!”

“Snorh…continue doing so-“

“Hey!”

“After we’re out of here”

“Thanks Stripy”

“Ugh I guess”

“good, now get back to work!”

Stripey’s doing fine with those lot and everyone else seems to be doing their own work…perfect.

…

…

(Thakarak’s POV)

“Everyone ready for a meal?” I look at all my gathered guildsmen; almost half of them are here.

The others were too busy doing their own things around here, but that’s alright.

The dining room can only hold close to 600 of us…so we won’t need everyone to join in, just, those that didn’t come won’t get to taste some lovely fresh blood!

I see a multitude of nods and with that, my slaves open the doors to the dining room.

…

..

.

HAHAHA! THE FOOLS!

They’re sitting down at the table!

Oh this will be a delicious meal indeed!

“Welcome, I was getting hungry waiting for all of you”

The hobgoblin, whatever his name was, gives me a nice big smile…hehe, you’re going to lose that smile very soon.

“Sorry, but it took longer than expected to grab everyone for dinner”

I walk into the room and my guildsmen file down either side of the room, quickly circling around, not hiding their intent very well, but I don’t notice the hobgoblin, or any of the others noticing that.

“It is fine, it gave me time to guess at the menu”

We finish encircling them, about 500 of us in the room, the rest waiting outside.

“Oh and what might it be?” I can’t hide my grin any longer, the FOOL!

“You”

*WHOOSH*

…

..

.

“Eh?”

*SPLAT*

…

…

(Joat’s POV)

*BASHSMASHBASHSMASHBASH*

“PUSH” Squirrel’s loud voice always comes in handy.

Gristle, the rhino and Kandien, the Moose both charge to the tabletop, which is covering the doorway, and push against it with all their might.

The rest of us are swinging our chairs around literally crushing a couple of goblins each swing.

5 seconds in and ¾ of the room are dead already! These chairs are awesome!

Dwarves are bloody good craftsman if they can make a stone chair that doesn’t smash after being swung into masses of goblins.

Though, these chairs are lined with metal and I believe there’s a metal core in them too, so they’re pretty durable.

*Crack*

The goblins in the room, haven’t really gotten what’s happening and the ones who have are trying to retreat to the corners of the room, away from the 11 people swinging round the thick, throne-like chairs, which bash multiple goblins each swing to oblivion.

“READY UP!”

Dropping my chair, I rush Gristle and Kandien, along with the others and push on their backs

*CRACK*

*SPLAT*

The upper half of the table just broke off and the rest we forcefully push out into the corridor and ram it through the goblin mass.

“PUSH” Half of us push while the others swing at the sides with their chairs, causing goblin to be splattered around the place.

Running over the last few goblins in front, we push the slab over the floor and towards the cave-like corridor.

Everyone drops their chairs and mass pushes against one another.

Speeding to and through the cave-like corridor, the goblins maniacally chase after us to no avail, probably out of anger.

The slab broke a little as we entered the corridor, but it’s still a tight fit causing sparks to fly around as we rocket through.

Within a minute, we’ve made it to the other side and once back in the warehouse, we stop the slab; letting a mass of squashed corpses fall and turn the slab around to face the corridor.

Peeking out from behind, I see the mass of goblins filling up the corridor, and coming right for us.

“TIME FOR SOME GOBLINS SQUISHING GENTLEMEN!”

Pushing against eachother, we rocket down the corridor once more and we hear the “EH?” of a goblin before we feel the impact and a multitude of squish sounds.

The force we’re pushing against increases tenfold, but that might just be because we have to push all the dead bodies too.

It doesn’t matter much, as there’s 13 of us pushing, so we burst out the corridor in maybe 2 minutes.

...

..

.

*THUD*

We let the slab fall on top of the mountain of squashed corpses we just made and we see a much smaller horde of terrified goblins looking at us.

“THEY’RE MONSTERS!”

“ESCAPE”

“RUN AWAY!”

They quickly disperse in all directions scrambling as far away from us as they can.

DillyDally goes to follow them but I put a hand up to stop him

“You’re going to let them run away?”

“Pfft, as if I’d let them”

Perfectly timed screams of goblins from all sides really emphasized my point there, sweet.

The screams and sounds of fighting lasts a few minutes.

“My seed has sprouted”

A slave turns round the corner, holding the head of what is probably her former master.

Following her is a lot more of them, most holding the head of probably their respective master.

Soon the corridor is filled to the brim with slaves and I decide now’s the time.

Walking out of the group, I walk onto the bloody slab which resides on top of the mountain of squashed corpses.

“Have you had your fair share of nobles…or would you like to kill some more?”

“KILL”

Quest Update:

2,421 Female Goblin Slaves have joined your side.

They do not contribute to your supporters.

6.72% of the Clan is Backing your Claim

6.72%? Oh! It’s because I killed 6,000 of them didn’t I.

And the slaves don’t count? Well that’s not fair.

Guess, no point rounding up slaves…or is there?

“You ladies, clean the mess and act like nothing has happened, make sure no one notices”

They all nod and get to work.

Walking down the slab, back to the others, I crack my knuckles.

“So, I’m hungry. How about we catch some dinner at some other guys house” I grin as best as I can

“Yeah, they’re reception sucked, and the dining table was too loose for their own good” Snorh adds in, the cheeky bugger

“Mhm, at least they provided us with decent chairs" Yinroh chimes in

We chuckle at that and walk back through the cave-like corridor, which isn’t that bloody. Well we did pretty literally scrape the whole way through so I wouldn’t expect much to be left there.

“Boss, your plan killed at least 1000, and possibly even up to 2000” Squirrel taps a finger on her mouth thoughtfully as she gently holds my left arm.

“Yes it was a great plan but do you have a point?”

“Well, next house, can I do the planning”

Is this a challenge I smell!?

“Sure, how about we all take a turn”

Most of them don’t look too convinced with that, but DillyDally just laughs

“Well this is a game, so might as well have fun”

He is certainly up for it!

Waving goodbye to the slave who I signaled earlier, she opens the door for me and I walk back onto the street.

9 hours to go and 9 houses left…Let’s get started!

…

…

(Tarakiel’s POV)

*Sob*

Ugh, so bored…Why is there never anything to do in these damnable caves?

*Sob*

“Lord Tarakiel”

“What is it now Gimmath”

*Sob*

“There’s a hobgoblin in the plaza”

Ooh! I smell something to do!

Hanging the whip on the wall, I quickly make my way out of the dungeons.

“Tell me more about this hobgoblin”

My trusted goblinservant powerwalks after me with ease.

“My ears couldn’t pick up what he said, but he was able to make the whole crowd go quiet with just his presence”

“Well that’s obvious you idiot, he’s a hobgoblin”

“He also has with him 12 prisoners” Gimmath continues on without pause.

“12?”

“Yes, I didn’t quite see what they were, vision and all”

“Continue on”

“He said a few words and then someone took him to the guild of merchants”

…

..

.

*Sigh*

Guess I’m not going to have something to do now

Well, I did leave a slave half-untrained…might as well finish training her.

…

…

Oops, I killed her.

Well whatever, there’s hundreds of thousands more of them.

“Lord Tarakiel”

Gimmath comes bursting through the dungeon door once again

“Just do the usual, send some palace slaves over and give them as a reward” I lazily wave him off

“You’re mistaken, the hobgoblin and his prisoners walked out fine a few minutes ago”

…

..

.

“Could you repeat that?”

“The hobgoblin and his prisoners just walked out of the guild of merchants, just a few minutes ago”

Wait a second

“How many idiots do we have in that building?”

“6000”

Wow, are they that strong? Or…have I been betrayed?

…hmm

“Send a messenger to the guild of merchants to see what has happened”

“Will do”

He turns to leave

“Ah wait”

He swivels round attentively

“Where has the hobgoblin gone now?”

…

…

(Joat’s POV)

“WAAAH”

*SPLATCRASHBANGBASHCLANG*

“DAMN, ONLY 10”

“WATCH THIS!”

“AAAAA-“

*CRASHBANGCLANG*

*Whistle*

“WOW, THAT’S QUITE THE ARM STRENGTH YOU HAVE THERE”

“YOU TWO, STOP THROWING GOBLINS AND START KILLING THEM” I scream to the two antlered fools who’re bowling goblins down the opposite corridor

“1 MORE GO”

*AAAAH-“

*CRASHBANGSMASHBASHCLANGSPLAT*

“SWEET”

I glance to my left, and see that a whole mass of goblins have tripped over one another thanks to the goblin missile.

No time to praise him since I’ve got hordes of goblins at my end too.

“Aaag-“

“-Staa-“

“-Nooo-“

“-Plea-“

Hmm, I need a new weapon.

Flinging the goblin into the crowd, I quickly grab another and swing it around while it pleads for its life.

Sadly these goblins aren’t as durable as the chairs from before, even though they’re wearing armor.

But they’re still pretty good as weapons.

Oh that one’s done. Grab another.

Swathing down goblins with a goblin is quite tiring but still decently fun. My end seems to be quite full of goblins, whereas the antlered idiots only have a thousand at most, so they’re free to throw goblin missiles and such.

“AAAGH”

Oho! My seeds finally sprouted it seems. Thank Aiag

The screams come from the back of the humongous line of thousands of goblins that are pushing their way towards me causing them much confusion.

“PUSH” Tikari giving the useful commands.

Along with DillyDally and the Gristle, I slowly walk up the corridor literally batting goblins into the air, armor and all.

I’m probably not the only one in the group who doesn’t have the strength to kill them in one go, but due to the weapon we’re using and them bashing in the wall/other goblins, it kills them off anyways.

The armored goblins have a problem deciding which side to fight and after barely minutes, the almost endless line of them has turned into a few hundred fighting while surrounded by the corpses of their brethren and of course, us.

I stop pushing and watch the slaves leap towards them; get skewered on the rusting weapons, and then the next wave getting through and ripping the armored goblins to pieces.

A minute of watching that, the last goblin falls.

Walking back to the crossroads in the corridors, I meet up with the others.

“So how many did we kill this time?”

“I’d say close to 8000 on our end”

*Whistle*

Everyone collectively whistles at that, partially from the number, partially from Squirrel’s extremely good skill in counting. Just what kind of eyesight does she have?

“How’d we even survive that?” SirStripy asks looking confused.

He has got a point, normally, thousands vs 13 doesn’t work so well.

Squirrel just grins.

“Simple; firstly, they had no momentum since they walked up to meet you, so without that there was little pressure forced onto you. Secondly, you had a large reach keeping them at bay. And thirdly, you literally bashed them back, giving yourself space to breathe, if only a little and further decreasing the pressure they put onto you”

She has got a point there; I didn’t get hit once, because of my weapon and when I went to get a new one, my companions covered with theirs.

“So basically we were a wall of death” I state to Gristle who is looking a bit confused

“Right on Boss”

Having 3 of us pile up in one corridor did literally made us some kind of death wall.

Also, with the amount of bodies that were piling up, they had to come at us at an even slower pace when they first started because of having to clamber over their dead friends.

An interesting tactic that worked out pretty well, albeit quite tiring.

Well this just goes to show that numbers are only useful if you can use them.

Checking casualties on the slave side, about 1,000 of them are left alive…wow that’s a hell of a lot of them that died there.

According to the goblin who showed us in, this was the guild of weapons, which had around 20,000 goblins and a close to triple amount of slaves.

They had taken us to this crossroad of corridors, before blocking us off in all directions.

Squirrel really does have some good ideas, which really saved our life there.

The 1,348 slaves join my cause and I now own 20.99% of the Clan’s support.

Which is a decent amount, for only having 3,248 supporters.

Having the slaves clean up, we take a good break, mostly lying on the floor, to regain our breath.

A couple of minutes later, we feel mildly refreshed and actually quite hungry.

Asking one of the slaves for food, they bring out some dried rat…

We all abstain on eating…not.

I try the rat, and it’s actually not as bad as I thought, a bit on the chewy side, but apart from that it’s a filling meal.

Squirrel takes a bite once I do, and she seems alright with it.

The rest of them devour the rat, a couple of them looking at it suspiciously at first, but giving into the hunger.

DillyDally was already chewing it like a snack way before I tried mine, so he either tried rat before or has done something similar? Or he’s one of those people who just eats whatever…to them food is food.

Whatever the reason, he’s eating the rat nonetheless.

We all eat and savour(?) the rat as it is the first meal we’ve had in a while.

Killing hordes of goblins really does make one hungry.

Does suck a little that we don’t get xp killing all those goblins but that’s the game.

Also looting them seems like a no go, since their armor seems stuck to them as well as their weapons...and they don't disappear like in a normal instance. Well this is a raid instance.

Finishing off my rat, I look down at my chestpiece; which is covered in a whole ton of blood and some drying vomit.

Taking a sniff, no it doesn’t smell weird…Maybe I’ve gotten used to the smell of being drenched in blood?

I hope the next house we go to has a bath. Though that’s unlikely to happen.

Making our way out of the house, I check and see that we’ve got about 8 hours left.

Not bad, only took an hour to kill and eat.

Walking back out into the street, I notice that the fights are still going full swing, but everyone stops as we exit the house.

I notice fear in their eyes. Walking out the guild of merchants is one thing, but to walk out of the guild of weapons? Hehe, well I am a monster (race).

One goblin does walk his way through the crowd, and they seem to part for him somewhat, allowing him to get through quickly.

Hmm?

The little goblin with a chewed ear and one white eye comes up to me

“Are you the Hobgoblin?”

“I am Joat, the hobgoblin, yes”

He bows deeply towards me

“The lord would like to see you now”

“Lead the way”

Wohoo! Finally, I’m going to see this Tarakiel person. Though I’m not sure that’s a good thing seeing as though I’ve killed a couple of thousand of his people in the past two hours…

Walking behind the goblin, we reach the palace quickly and walk through the large mouth gates of a dwarf.

Entering the courtyard, the gates close behind us.

Now time to meet the-

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

*BANG*

What was that?

…

…

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-TRUENORRRRRRRRRD