I eagerly awaited the countdown to hit zero and for this to begin. Right now, I’m a little scared as to how the rage effect will alter their minds, will it drive them crazy with unnatural hate for all other living things or will it focus their rage on a collective end goal. Either way this is my only option for boss monsters now.

Umbra started looking at me, I kind of want to know what she thinks about this. Before I could ask, she spoke up. “Alaric, I can tell when something is bothering you through our link. What's wrong? She saw through me, so I told her.

“I’m scared that the High Goblins, even with the greater intelligence, will be overrun by the massive Savage Goblin horde on this floor. They are literally outnumbered 4 to 1. I mean yes the Savage Goblins are stupid, like drown in an inch of water stupid, but even they can’t lose with that kind of number advantage.”

“Hahahaha, my silly core numbers are not everything in a fight. While the savage little monster may outnumber them, the High Goblins have height, weight, and brains on their side. Plus, what you don’t know is that Rage Fueled Supremacy affects all creatures on a floor not just the ones classified as monsters. So, it's gonna affect the spiders, wolves, boars, hell even the squirrels and rabbits that are running around are gonna be out for blood the next few days.”

“Days! What do you mean days? I thought it lasted a day! You mean I have to delay making an entrance for a few days!”

“It could be worse, Alaric, it could have taken a month. A few days isn’t so bad in the grand scheme of things.”

Ugh every time I start to like this gig something comes up and kicks me in the metaphorical balls. But Umbra is right it could be a whole hell of alot worse than it is. I just have to sit back and enjoy the show my monsters and creatures are going to put on for me. Matter of fact I’m going to use those 7 names on the monsters and creatures that perform the best the next few days. It will give me something constructive to do at least.

“Yo Umbra wanna make some bets?”

“What kind of bets”

“The fun kind. Which of the floor inhabitants do you think will perform the best? I’d put my money on that first High Goblin I summoned, you know the one with the grey hair and red eyes that took the axe from the weapon pile, he seems to be looking forward to this the most.”

“Okay I’ll take that bet. My choice is the short goblin female that went off towards the swamp.”

“Really, you could pick any of them and you choose the runt.” I feel like she knows something I don’t, which she probably does. “Why do you think she will do better than the others?”

“Simple I used (Inspect) on her and found out she has the (Big Brain Plays) skill. It reduces size but boosts intelligence and increases the rate at which mental skills are gained. So, to be honest she's the smartest thing in this dungeon next to us. So, I think she has a plan already.”

“Wait, they have skills already. I thought they were blank when first summoned. Let me see what it does.”

“Ah ah ah my Alaric curosity murdered the cat, you can check her skill after everything is done it will be more fun that way right. Also to answer your question normally they are blanks as far as skills and personality go but they quickly gather them over time. The thing is she started so much smaller than the other I figured it had to be a skill or curse, so I checked.”

Okay I gotta give it to her for wondering about why that one High Goblin was so small. I'm a little mad she doesn't want me to check out that skill though. Still maybe that means there's a chance the others started with skills too. Naw with my luck I would have a cursed goblin, better to wait and see like I originally planned to do. “Never mind the bet let's just see what happens. So how much longer before it kicks off anyway?”

“Oh, it should be….”

Attention Raged Fueled Supremacy is now in effect for the duration the core may not interfere on any floors that are affected.

“Now” Umbar responded a little deflated because her dramatic moment was interrupted.

Well, that settles that now onto the show. Let’s get this spectacle over with so I can finally open.

POV Unnamed High Goblin Female (The smart one)

My sisters and I watched as the males of our race prepared to fight. The Firstborn took command of them and was barking out orders. The fools were preparing to storm the forest. I don’t know why the other males listened to Firstborn. They will most likely run into the wolves the master spoke of or the boars first. They don’t see the taint on this floor the way Daggers, Bow and I do. When we were informed that there were Savage Goblins on this floor, we knew what should take priority, their destruction above all else is what's truly important. Taming the rest of the floor could come after their destruction.

When it came time to pick weapons from the pile, I convinced my sisters to take a dagger and a bow. While the males created a commotion in the forest, we would silently hunt the swamps. I already deduced that there was a small band of those savage hunched freaks in the swamp. A perfect test of our abilities before we sought out the rest on this floor.

“Sisters, I have found their trail. They can’t be that far ahead of us now.” Spoke Bow.

“Excellent” I replied with a smile daring to split my face. “Alert us when we are almost upon them and keep an eye out for the spiders that call this part of the floor home.”

“Why do you even care if the spiders show up Brainy? I think we can take a couple of spiders as well as the savage gobbos.” Daggers said with a causal attitude.

Really, I have to explain this to her again. “We need to be careful of them because they are three times our size and can eat us if we aren’t careful. We are dungeon monsters but that doesn’t mean we can’t be killed, especially seeing as we are planning on killing any Savage Goblin, we find out here.” I explained to her for the eighth time.

“Maybe you're right Brainy but it still feels weird you know. I know you can feel the air, the way it pulses, it's calling out to us to shed blood. Why are we sneaking when we can charge them and reap a bloody harvest?” Daggers said.

“Because if we charge them, they will have a chance to retaliate. Why should we give them a chance to fight back when we can sneak up on them and slaughter them instead? I asked back.

She opened her mouth to respond but closed it when Bow stopped and held up her hand.

We have work to do now. We glanced and saw a group of 9 Savage Goblins gathered around a small five with several spider corpses scattered around them a few feet to the left of where we stood in the bushes. I couldn’t believe it! Daggers had been so loud how they didn’t hear us walking up on them is a mystery. Oh well, time to do this. I hefted my broken quarterstaff, Daggers readied her daggers, and Bow drew back an arrow. Then at an unspoken command we struck.

I may be smart, but my sisters are far better than me at combat. Daggers moved in swiftly and cut the throat of the nearest savage, while also stabbing another in the eye. She had the biggest smile on her face at that moment. 2 down 7 to go, *THUD, THUD* correction 5 to go. In the instance I took my eyes off of her Bow had struck 2 down with precise shots to the heart. They turned pale as their blood leaked out around the arrow shafts and fell over dead. The other savages panicked and tried to turn tail and run but they were too slow.

I caught one in the side of the head. My staff made a nice solid *THAWK* as it knocked him to the ground. I checked to see if I had killed him, I didn't. He was just unconscious. I’ll interrogate him later. Daggers had sunk her daggers into the temple of another Savage Goblin, he jerked erratically, and spat out blood as he fell to the ground. *THUD* A body fell on top of me. “Sorry Brainy” Bow replied, still aiming at the last 2. Before she could release her arrows, Daggers fell upon them from a tree branch. When did she even have time to climb up there? Ah well it didn’t matter at all now my sisters had killed all of them except the one I knocked out.

“Brainy, what's the point in keeping this one alive? You were the one who said we should kill them quickly after all.” Daggers said as she came walking over hands and daggers covered in blood, and grinning ear to ear.

“I’m going to get some information from him, that's all” I replied maliciously.

I slapped him awake after we had tied him to a tree. As he came to my sisters, and I grinned at the helpless savage hunchback. Once I was sure he was fully awake the questioning started.

“Alright you savage tell us are there more of your kind in this swamp?”

He looked up at and snarled, as if he was a threat to us when he was still free. He should be thanking whatever god they worship that I need information and have let him live this long.

The horrid little savage spoke in his guttural broken speech “uksk hhfyf yrrgfbf shysbr jhfujrm tydrf sfeui pirn mo ytff.” I smashed him in the mouth with my staff knocking out more of his rotten brown teeth.

“You insignificant pathetic excuse for a goblin, how dare you speak to us as if you hold any power here! You get one more chance to tell me where your wretched kin hide, and I will kill you quickly!” I roared at him in response to what he said about me and my sisters.

“Brainy, what the hell did that little puke say to make you so mad? Daggers asked

I couldn’t tell her or Bow. It hurt me to keep it in and soon tears began to leak down my face. Not long after I was on the ground crying from sheer rage. I was mad at the savage for saying it and mad at Daggers for wanting to know what he said. Bow came over and hugged me close, whispered that it was okay to tell us we are stronger than them and can handle it. I broke down and told them. He said “weak females release me, and I will allow you to service my cock tonight.” After I told them it took both me and Bow to stop Daggers from castrating him on the spot.

“Oh yeah you stupid fucker! Let's see you fuck anything after I cut your dick up and feed it to you piece by piece!” Dagger yelled as we held her back. Seeing her like this made me even madder than before. The normally, well as normal since we met, happy go lucky Dagger was pissed off and prepared to mutilate our prisoner. This is just great, what are we going to do about him now, no way Daggers lets him live long enough for me to get any answers. *chrktchrktchrktchrktchrktchrkt*

Fuck me that's not great. At least it snapped Daggers out of her blood rage. I started to ask Bow if she had seen anything, when I looked at her, she had already nocked an arrow and had aimed just off into the shadows of one of the big trees. I came up with the perfect idea for dealing with this little shit.

“Daggers, Bow, listen up I have an idea I want to try out.” I told them brimming with confidence.

“What kind of idea Brainy?” Daggers, and Bow questioned.

“It's simple either he tells us where the rest of his kind are hiding, or we let the spiders take their anger out on him! This way he gets a choice: we make his death quick and painless, or the spiders will make it slow and horrible!” I cheerfully told my sisters.

They stared at me with wide eyes for a few seconds before huge grins split their faces. I knew they would like this idea because no matter what he chooses he would still die which at this moment suited me just fine. I relayed what we discussed with our prisoner minus the part where we killed him if he told us everything and waited. It was funny watching as his eyes bugged out after I told him what was going to happen to him, then seeing him pull against the ropes that bound him.

We stepped away and started to climb a nearby tree to get off the ground, as we did, we could hear the *chrktchrktchrktchrktchrktchrkt* of the spiders as they moved closer. He was really freaking out now, and that only made it worse for him, his legs somehow kicked up enough mud from the ground that it threatened to put out the fire and as it died, we could begin to see the spider emerge. I had been wrong, it was not a group of spiders but one single huge spider, the body was 5 ft wide and 10ft long not counting the legs, when taking them in the legs added another 15ft to its total. It had a shiny dark blue exoskeleton splotched with purple dots and eight crimson eyes shone with a baleful glint in the darkness and caustic venom dripped from foot long obsidian colored fangs.

No way in hell were we coming down to try and kill that savage even if he gave us the information. I would not risk my life nor the lives of my sisters for petty revenge. I took a glance at Daggers and saw her shiver at the sight of this spider. Bow simply took aim. I stopped her no reason to make it angry enough to come after us too right. The spider glanced up at us then back to the tied up savage then back at us, as if asking permission to feed. I nodded and I could have sworn I saw the spider smile at me. It quickly scuttled over to the savage, and it took a bite right out of his side, *CRUNCH*, and chewed it up then swallowed it. I will never get that image or the sound out of my mind. I almost felt sorry for the poor bastard as he wailed “Aaaaahhhhh” and desperately flailed on the ground now free due to the chunk missing from his side. The spider didn’t care and took another bite. *CRUNCH* went his bones as the spider tore off his right leg. “Aaaaahhhh” wailed the Savage Goblin again though weaker this time around. We watched the whole five minute ordeal, I counted how long it took the spider to eat, never taking our eyes off the spider.

When silence returned to this area of swamp the spider still stood in the clearing, face and mouth parts covered in blood from its meal. We were too scared to move from our position up in the tree. Then something unexpected happened. “Mistress may I feed on the other corpses or do you and your brood want them for yourselves.”

“Did either of you hear that?” I asked out loud.

“Nope” Daggers and Bow replied

“Mistress is everything alright? You’re twitching up there.” The voice spoke once again.

I had a feeling who the owner of that voice was, but I didn’t believe it. I mean could that spider really be talking to me. I need more information first. So, I asked my sisters again. I don’t know why sometimes I just love the confused looks they give when I ask them a question more than once.

“Did either of you two notice any sounds a few seconds ago?” I asked already expecting a single answer.

Bow spoke first this time “Yea the creepy chittering from that spider but nothing else.”

I thought so. Well at least I'm not crazy...yet at least. Somehow the spider was talking to me and apparently it considered me its mistress. Now the important question is why it considered me this way.

“Spider, yes you may have the other corpses!” I yelled down at the huge spider.

“A thousand thank you, my most wise and generous Mistress! I will savor the crunchy bits and slurp up the slippery parts that you have provided me Mistress.!”

The spider exalted me then provided to feast upon the corpses of the Savage Goblins my sisters had killed. I still don’t know why it listens to me or even wants to take orders from me, but it feels right. It’s like something in the spider calls out to be controled to be dominated and I kinda like the sensation. Like being wrapped in a warm blanket. Either way I somehow know this spider will come in handy. Just a matter of how to use it. But first we can’t just keep calling it spider. It needs a name just like we do.