Barely slithering in the shadows of the cavern wall edges, Oscar crawls as sneakily as his small body could. Being careful not to alert the group of humans even by accident, he maintained a distance of one whole cavern passage. Occasionally, peeking at them from the dark. 

'They didn't look like from earth' 

Oscar was now more than certain that he isn't in his own world, not that his world had some monsters hidden in a dungeon. But maybe on an off chance, an apocalypse or some crazy stuff happened, turning everyone into some monsters just like him, thought the human turned Goblin. 

'You never know what would have come after that global pandemic, and the upcoming world-war 3' he shrugged, shaking that thought out of his mind he heard their voices, they talked among themselves in a language he couldn't make heads or tails of it. 

But that didn't discourage Oscar, it only fueled his curiosity about them. Prompting him to follow them out of curiosity, and definitely not because that hateful orange-haired woman had stolen his magic crysta, Oscar wasn't that petty man/goblin.

If he wanted, he could have taken more magic crystals from the deep burrows. 

'But after angering their Raticulous king, I doubt they would welcome me' 

Not that they have welcomed him before. 

Nonetheless, he had decided to go back after some time when the things would have calmed down a bit and those unicorn rats aren't that alerted of an intruder running in their mines. Giving him free rein on hunting them again, and leveling risk-free consequently. 

*Bang!*

'Woah!' With sparkling eyes, Oscar was astounded as he saw how the team had beaten a dog-headed monster twice his size with well-coordinated attacks as swift as a wiper clearing the water. The dog monster couldn't even put up much resistance. 

'Magic...' With eager eyes, Oscar takes out one of his own magic crystals intended to imitate what orange-haired women did before a small fireball came out and dashed at that monster. But, other than vibrating and glowing more furiously, it did nothing like he was hoping for. 

'Urgh!' Frustrated, he put it back. 

'Is something special about that wooden staff?' He didn't think about it before, but maybe that ?-Shaped wooden staff did more than make a magic crystal float inside its semi-circle. 

'Or maybe those magic crystals aren't the same as mine?' 

His eyes couldn't see that far ahead clearly, hindering him from discerning any conclusive difference between that magic crystal and his. 

The humans didn't spend much time taking the valuable parts out of the monster's body before walking away, leaving behind an almost intact corpse/meal for Oscar to feast upon. 

'That's too good to be true, right?' After coming close to that monster's corpse he thought. He turned left and right, checking any other presence near him before gnawing at it as fast as he could, fearing losing their trails while he got busy eating. 

Though, not that appetizing as unicorn rats, it was still a delicacy and more so when it was freely delivered to him. 

'Khe! Khe! Khe! Looks like I didn't follow you in vain humans'

Giving a self-pat, he thought while catching up to them before the humans could get any further away from his detection range. 

The human adventurers cleared almost all the monsters they have encountered with much less struggle than Oscar could have imagined. Moreover, they would leave most of the monster's meat intact; thus, further convincing him to keep following them as he got free Gene aliments and the much-needed protection. 

Even if he could only eat a small portion from more than ten monster corpses, regardless of their levels, Oscar still managed to stuff himself with a large portion of Gene aliment points, enough for him to view at least a dozen different mutations, making him wipe the drool off his mouth. 

'Good work everyone!' 

He thanked those kind humans for every increment in his Gene aliment points. Although he also wanted to raise his level, but the goblin still appreciated them for getting the easy mutations. 

Besides, that female mage had been a great motivation for him to keep practicing and finally increase his only Magic related skill, in hopes to attain fascinating magic powers just like her.

And at last, he was finally able to glow the magic crystal enough that the air buzzed in tandem with the dazzling bright light. 

"!!!" 

Suddenly, the female mage turned in his direction and prompted others to follow on alert. 

'This...Sh*t?!' 

Feeling like cursing at his own stupidity, Oscar scrambles away in panic on all fours, dropping his last magic crystal at the ground that was still glowing ever so slightly like a beautiful ember. 

                                                             

Not long after that, the adventurers approached his previous location with the mage in lead as she pointed her wooden staff ahead cautiously. 

But other than the identical-looking Mana stone on the ground, she had picked before, they didn't find anyone. 

"Another Mana stone?" Julia said with a frown, causing Rudeus to snicker behind her 

"Looks like that traitor Raticul ghost was giving us a bribe to avenge him" 

"That isn't even funny, Rudeus" Glaring at the snickering man, Julia gasped internally, taking two steps back out of fear at the possible ghost. 

"Nicolas, any idea?" 

Shaking his head, Greyt asked the guy who claimed to be the most knowledgeable than them, only to get disappointed when Nicolas shakes back his head in defeat after taking out a compass-like small device 

"Somehow, there are too many magic signals interfering here" 

"But I certainly felt the Mana fluctuations, and we didn't meet any adventurers around here" Julia tighten her grasp around the wooden staff with an uncomfortable feeling. 

"Here, no monsters are higher than Lv20. And normally, they aren't smart enough to run away from a fight. They will certainly fight to death, if we crossed their path" Rudeus reasoned with her as it was normally impossible to find an anomaly in the first three Stratas. 

"Yeah, normally, But I'm talking about What If?"

"Then we still beat the sh*t outta that guy" Banging his trusty shield, Greyt beamed before turning away, confident of his own strength and the party. 

"So, you heard" Shrugging, Rudeus followed behind him. Leaving behind a sighing Julia, who took out the map to check the rest of the location. 

'There's only one zone left to investigate' she thought, before pocketing both the Mana stones and the map. 

Causing a certain goblin to scream his mind out at her 'Women! Why are you stealing my last magic crystal'

Coming out of his hiding, Oscar released his breath that he held for so long and glared hatefully at the female mage. But it didn't take much for his glare to take a mischievous turn when he saw the skinny guy pass the backpack to her in consideration of his weak shoulders. 

'Khe! Khe! Khe! I always wanted to try this'

Rubbing his hands in anticipation, Oscar takes advantage of the fact that others were walking too far ahead. He sneaked closer and closer to her, while taking note of where she had pointed her staff, knowing how dangerous the situation would be should he get caught accidentally. 

When he approached just behind the small boulder placed near her he nimbly flicked his one arm behind the said backpack with many pockets using his skill [Strip] to the max of his ability. He blindly took out the first thing his hand grabbed, and disappeared in the dark with a pounding heart before she could react. 

"Huh?!" 

Abruptly turning behind her, Julia yelped in fear, her wooden staff was ready to burst multitudes of attacks in sight of the enemy. 

"Hey! What happened?" 

Greyt turned back to her, only for Julia to shake her head in return. 

"Nothing!" She picked up her pace, and joined them with a shake of her head, not wanting Rudeus to make fun of her fear of ghosts again. 

Somehow, Oscar had a feeling that this skill is much suited for this rather than skinning the monster's hide with ease. 

'Huh... Why does this magic crystal look different?' he thought, feeling the smooth surface of the mysterious blue crystal, like a polished and processed marble unlike his sharp and rough stones from the mine. 

He stares at those sparkling particles inside of it that look nothing like the magic crystals he had taken from those rat monsters. Some figures and symbols were also etched on the surfaces, but they're so tiny that he gets a headache just by focusing on them. 

'A magic crystal that can actually do something other than glowing more furiously?!' 

He got excited as he jumped in glee, wanting to experiment with it right away after taking a greedy glance at that mage carrying the bag pack, but before he could check further of its features, Oscar saw them taking another turn and came across the familiar-looking cavern. 

'Wait, isn't this leads straight into that Raticulous king's lair?!' He gulped in fear.

Watching those brave adventurers advancing straight inside of that monster's lair, he questions himself if he should already start running or should he wait for a while before running?

                                                              

'Better be safe than sorry' with a nod, he checks the available skills and mutations to better aid in his running.

'Hmm? No mutations, but there are some good skills though' he saw the three skills that seem best to him, and most importantly they're purchasable with his remaining 11 skill points. 

'Leap... What's better than running for a while, or just simply jumping straight to your safe nest? 

But the problem is that I don't have a nest nor do I live on a tree, even though I do feel like a monkey sometimes. More importantly, I can't use it more than twice a day. And considering my current environment being underground caverns, I would be dead after taking two turns, in an instant. 

The vanishing step has all that I would want in a skill to run away from the enemy in stealth, but the problem would start when I did get detected, what if the enemy was too high level or I couldn't take cover to activate the stealth in time. 

From my other skill, sneak, I'm assuming it also doesn't cover me with darkness or some magical thing to make me invisible- the biggest flaw. 

Sure I can't run while in Sneak which is based on slow and steady steps, but it doesn't change the fact that I could hide by using the same skill and wait for the enemy to go away itself before coming out of hiding, which for me, will work the same. 

While Elusive dash sounds like a running slippery glass cannon that would be dead if it gets hit but, the skill's main focus is all about not getting hit in the first place. Which, compared to the above skills, doesn't overlap with my other existing ones, nor does it limits me in any way like some durations or the number of uses per day' 

Decided, Oscar selected the Elusive dash and felt the same sensation coursing through his veins, giving him a boost of confidence for what he was about to do. 

'Khe! Khe! Khe!' Cackling to himself, Oscar advances behind the human adventurers in stealth.