Their humvee pulled into the parking lot of what appeared to be a large shopping mall in the middle of downtown, Ray recognized it as he'd been here on a few occasions but the venue had changed significantly since the last time he saw it. Much like the the goblin village he had seen pop-up at his old workplace, a similar sight had greeted him here. Rudimentary huts made out car-parts and trash, along with the bodies of the goblins who used to inhabit them.

Unfortunately, it wasn't just goblin bodies he saw. Body bags and tarps could be seen on location, which a handful of other military groups were using as they worked to secure the site. Interestingly enough, none of them were making any attempt to enter inside, or perhaps they already had tried once. Ray noted as he saw a camouflaged uniform peaking out from under one of the tarps.

"Goblins are in there right? So what's the plan?" Ray turned his eyes back to the three other soldiers he had driven in with. So far he had only been introduced to Matias who had been riding in the back with him, while the driver and the front passenger appeared busy mounting go-pros to the front of their helmet.

Hearing his comment, the soldier who had driven them in directed his attention over to Ray.

"Situation is like this, at least fifty to a hundred of those little suckers are in there, and we've got reports of one big guy. Big green bastard with a big club, 45mm's do not appear to be effective. We're going to be going in along with you, but our role is purely for support. Commander Morgan's orders, your spider does all the work and we get the honor of recording it in HD."

This pattern was shaping up to be almost exactly like what he experienced in the supermarket. Multiple normal monsters all surrounding one abnormal 'boss' type monster. The system called it a monster nest last time, this one's probably the same thing.

"Put this on." The other soldier who had rid up front passed him kevlar, Ray was surprised by the weight but he was quite a bit stronger after receiving two physical boosts from his earlier achievement rewards, putting it on without complaint. He didn't

"Do I get a gun?" Ray asked, seeing as he didn't have a weapon with him.

"Can you use a gun?" The soldier looked at him again appraisingly.

"Not really, but I'd still like to think it's better than nothing."

The man took out a pistol from his holster, before placing it into Ray's hand.

"This here is the safety, keep it on until you need it. Basic gun-safety, don't point it at us. Got it?" When Ray nodded, the man continued with his camera, leaving Ray to his own devices while he practiced aiming with the pistol. Having never so much as held one before he was somewhat awkward with the aim. Firing a few test rounds into a goblin body from a distance, asking for a new clip when he was out.

"I don't think I ever caught your names?", Ray asked while receiving the new rounds.

The soldier finished up fixing the camera mount before patting Ray on the shoulder.

"I'm James, and that's Levi", pointing towards the man who had briefed me earlier before turning back to the man I sat with in the back. "This one's Matias, but you've already met him. Nice to meet you, by the way." James finished speaking and stuck his hand out in a friendly gesture.

"Uh, likewise." Ray replied, grabbing James' hand firmly with his own, "So are we ready to go?"

James got a nod of approval from everyone else. "Ready when you are."

Seeing his kill count frozen in place for a few hours, he noticed that others were gradually starting to catch up with him. Second place wasn't quite yet at forty kills yet, but it was only a matter of time. "Should I summon the spider then?"

"Not yet, wait until we enter the building. We're supposed to keep any witnesses down to a minimum."

The group set out, walking through the maze of car-part shacks and goblin bodies up to a side-entrance of city mall which doubled as a department store.

"Big goblin was last seen on the second floor food court, that's going to be our destination. There's an up escalator here in the Macy's, the plan is to catch that and make our way to the center of the mall. You can summon the spider on the 2nd floor." Levi said, handing Ray a brochure pamphlet of the mall and department store which included a basic map of the interior, which he quickly read before stuffing it into his pocket for safekeeping.

Each of them stepped carefully through the empty frame of the department store's door, the glass of which had been shot out, creating a series of razor-like sharp edges which had to be gingerly avoided.

Inside the Macey's the coat-racks and clothes sections had been completely ransacked. Clothes strewn everywhere on the floor, some of them torn and ripped arbitrarily. A clear sign that goblins had been here.

A distance aways all of them saw the escalator. Black colored clothes had been selectively tied to the railings near the top, draping down over the second floor balcony, each of the clothes folded up roughly in a sling shape so as to carry a small bundle. A disgusting one at that, heads. Human heads.

Ray already didn't like the Goblins for how aggressive they were, but this level up brutality was truly living up to the name 'monster'.

The group went up the escalator solemnly, paying closer attention to their surroundings now.

"G'nar gamo kulu!" A strange guttural call came from a storefront from the top level, third floor, as a small goblin ran away from their position shrieking those words miserably. Words. It wasn't an unintelligent scream, it was speaking. Alerting the others. This was a somewhat alarming revelation for Ray. 

Even before, those clothes, they might be barbaric but it almost looked like a flag.

"These aren't mere monsters, they seem to have a certain degree of organization to them. Almost like a tribal society." He couldn't help but comment.

Lucky, which had previously hidden itself within his clothes, crawled up the back of his shirt and onto his shoulder, inching its silkworm body out slowly.

"You shouldn't ever assume that they'd be unintelligent... nests can have anything come out of them, but you usually won't have any species that's too far advantaged compared to the natives... in the future you humans will be expected to make nests like these of your own. Branch out to ensure your species survival."

Lucky seemed to be speaking faster than it used to, was this a consequence of all the feeding it had done recently? Or possibly even the effect of his 'enhancement to innate abilities' reward?

"Does your species have nests?" Ray asked with some curiosity towards the subject.

"Of course, but we're a peaceful race. Native species always find us more useful alive than dead, so we can coexist almost anywhere."

Once they made it to the second floor they had a decent view of the surroundings. Maybe a dozen goblins were openly loitering about within eyeshot, hoisting sharpened spears on their stubby green shoulders while they watched Ray's group with eager expressions.

"Time to start," Ray said flatly. Calling out his spider from the room it had waited in so patiently.

The arachnid's legs towered above them as it zeroed in on its prey. 

Neither it nor Ray would show them any mercy.