Daron moved into the forest where the goblins had come from, looking around for traces of where they originated. Goblins are relatively light, combined with their reasonably high sneak skill and, it was easy for them to leave little tracks when they wanted to. But in the end, they are little more than E+ ranked monsters so, for a skilled tracker like Daron, the few tracks they left behind were quickly found by him, even without the appropriate skills. And when he found those he quickly located a group of footprints that they left behind before they noticed him and started moving stealthily.

After that, it was a simple case of following the tracks back to their source, and boy was he surprised when he found it. The source of the goblins was a large village, built in a clearing in the forest. It was unusually large, in fact, it would be more accurate to call it a goblin town rather than a simple village.

This made him reconsider his location. Before he had thought he was in a remote village away from the majority of civilization, but with the size of this village, it was more than likely the road he came from wasn’t the only one they’re raiding. For a goblin settlement to thrive they needed two requirements. One no high-level predators, while goblins are sneaky it was hard to hide a permanent settlement, so they would be restricted to small groups.

The second was women, the goblin gender ratio is roughly 1:10 with men being the majority, however, goblins can make up for this by reproducing often. However, goblins can reproduce with almost every sentient species, so by mooching off of humans, who will not only cull dangerous monster but will send juicy targets for raiding on the roads connecting their cities, it made it easy for them to grow. With the size of this town, he could reasonably assume that there is some sort of trading town nearby, where people would flow through often.

Back to the settlement itself, he couldn’t place an exact number, but it should be around a few hundred. While the walls were made with the standard level of goblin craftsmanship, it was well defended with thick walls made of tree trunks. a crude gate, having to be dragged to be opened, blocking the entrance making it was easily defendable in the event of a siege. He would need to scout them further, so not wanting to waste the precious darkness, he cast a new Shadow spell, ‘Cloak of Shadows’.

The shadow of the trees, bushes, and even his own twisted, being pulled towards him, it encased him. Just like when he first learned shadow magic, he felt the chill associated with shadow magic, but ignoring it he crawled along the ground. Hiding in some tall grass nearby, he was able to creep closer to the walls without trouble. But reaching its end, and with no other cover in sight, it would seem this is as far as he could go.

*Ding*

Hm? Pulling up the notification, it seemed obvious in hindsight.

He pulled up its and Cloak of Shadow’s description.

He had already snuck around in the Tunnel Snakes’ tunnels, so it seemed he only needed this to push him over the edge of the requirements to acquire the skill. As for his thoughts on Cloak of Shadows? It was good, very mana intensive but good. It was especially useful right now as his Sneak was still (LV.1).

Hiding, he looked on towards the gate. Now closer, he could see two goblins on top of the walls, looking outwards while on the verge of seemingly passing out. However, while it might not be obvious at a distance, these goblins were bigger than the ones he had faced before. They were also better equipped, with a crudely stitched set of hides covering most of their green skin, and the weapons they had were actual weapons made of metal. Not that they were of the best quality, even from here he could see the rust covering a good portion of the spear one of the guards carried. It wasn’t hard to guess what they are, but identifying them confirmed it.

To fill in a bit more info, when a goblin reaches their max level, they seldom reach the requirements to evolve into a new race. But rather they have the ability to gain a class, allowing them to specialize in a field. The most common of which was the warrior class, as seen above.

It was useless just to stand here doing nothing, he needed to get into the camp to scout, and he had an idea of how to slip past the guards…

________

What do goblins guards think about? The answer is the same most men from any species would think about when on guard duty at night, a soft bed. So it was no surprise that both the goblins on the wall were a little grumpy, and more than a little sleepy.

One of the goblins started to feel like someone was watching him, assuming it was his partner he looked over, only to find he was fast asleep leaning on his spear.

“Agh!”

Kicking the butt of the spear, the owner who had been dreaming peacefully was rudely awoken.

“Grrr”

The now ruffled goblin growled at the other, causing him to do the same. It wasn’t long until they were consumed by their standoff, no longer caring about the world around them.

________

He had used yet another spell from the Shadow school of magic, Eerie Gaze. the spell would manifest an eye in the shadow of the target, giving them a sense of dread. But maybe because of how stupid they were, but the goblins weren’t that frightened.

Despite that not having been his plan, he didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth and took the opportunity to dash towards the wall. Arriving quickly, he began to burrow at the base of the wall. As the builders hadn’t considered preparing for a rabbit digging under their walls, it was a simple task to get through.

Coming up the other side he saw the inside of the village. It looked like any other goblin village, Littered with huts made of sticks, mud, and whatever they could get their grubby little hands on. The most common being hide or bone, some of which looked suspiciously like human ones. However, there was one big difference between this village and most others, other than the size that is.

They were built neatly, a standard village would have the buildings scattered around haphazardly. These, however, were built with the idea of leaving clear paths forming blocks almost as if inside an urban city. Daron wouldn’t make the same mistake twice, both the large size and now the orderly city design. It was obvious that the goblins were lead by some sort of variant leader, not the standard goblin chieftain or shamen, but what? He could rule out an ogre or orc, as most of them were too impatient to be able to corral the goblins to this extent. It was probably a troll or hobgoblin.

With a smart leader, it would be hard for him to eradicate the village. If it was something dumber, he could whittle them down bit by bit through hunting their raiding parties. However, their leader would probably catch on quickly and increase the size of any group they sent out. His best chance would be assassination. If he could kill the leader, then the goblins would default to the next strongest. And without a competent leader, he would be able to pick them off, as he had just mentioned.

He headed farther into the village, the leader’s hut most likely in the center of the village, so he made his way that direction. Other than housing, there was only the occasional hut to store some weapons or whatnot, not even having doors on their storehouses. Looking at how low quality the buildings were, gave him an idea. With how close they were to each other, it would be easy for a fire to spread. That would be the perfect distraction for his assassination, but he wasn’t going to hastily rush in, no this was merely a scouting mission, he would come back later when the opportunity was right.

“NO! %#&! NO! NO! %$#&@!”

As he approached the center of the village, he saw two big bildings. One was made of materials clearly a step above the rest of the huts, while the other wasn’t. It was easy to guess which building was the leader’s, as for the other… He mentioned earlier, but goblins could and would reproduce with females of other species, regardless of consent.

It was morbid to think about, but the fear in the screams showed that they had only recently been captured by the goblins and added to their ‘collection’. Daron wasn’t the most righteous person in the world, but he would have to be a monster in mind not just the body to not feel anything listening to the pleas they had most likely been screaming for hours.

He couldn’t even go check it out with the risk of being seen too high, the flickering light of flames coming from within the hut easily revealing him. The most he could do was focus on taking revenge for them, by killing all the goblins here.

The doors for the huts were actually sheets of hide draping over the door frames, making it simple for him to peak under the ‘door’. The inside was crudely decorated with trinkets of various sorts, from what looked like dreamcatchers, to skull helmets made from a large bird of some sort. A shaman?

On the other side of the hut was a bed made of, like most things, hide and cloth. On top of the pile, the leader seemed to use for a bed, were two figures. The leader wasn’t a troll or a hobgoblin like he had assumed. Instead, it was a large goblin, larger than the warriors that had been guarding the gate. The only clothing it had on it was a large ceremonial headdress that had a mask covering the upper half of its face. He had no idea what kind of goblin this was, he could begin to make a rough guess of what it might be. But there isn’t any point when a much simpler option exists now is there?

Oh…That was a bit boring. I mean, they do say the most simple answer is often correct, but ‘Shamen-Cheiften’? He didn’t even know why he was complaining, why was he so disappointed in who was leading the goblins? It wouldn’t matter when it was dead, but killing it would be difficult. Shamans are good at buffing and healing, so it would probibly engage in melee combat whilst buffing itself.

But he had mentioned two figures on the bed, it seemed he had walked in on the Cheif doing the deed. His partner? Her deep tanned skin and large pointed ears betrayed her identity as a Wood Elf.

Elves have a very strict caste system, depending on what sub-race of elf you were it would determine your status in the community. High Elves stood at the top, being the elf equivalent to royalty. They have an incredible affinity for magic, making them the trump card of the elven race. Below them are the Sun and Moon elves along with a few other rarer races of elves, they act as the diplomats, civil servants, and generals of the elven countries. And below them were the commoners of the elven race, making up the vast majority of the elven race, this class were mainly Plain Elves and Wood Elves. Plain elves are what you would typically think of when imagining elves, they were more balanced, having a moderate talent for both magic and bows. Finally, Wood Elves lack an affinity for all magic but plant but are probably the most dexterous of all the elven races, they’re majestic hunters who are known for their skill with a bow. The only elves below the commoners in their caste system are dark elves, but now wasn’t the time to get into them.

The woman on the bed looked nothing like what he had described earlier. Naked and covered in cuts and bruises, her eyes were clenched shut, the occasional shiver or whimper the only sign that she was still alive as the chieftain played with her.