At Roberta's hut, the trio were having a hearty dinner.

"I see the three of you had a fruitful day," Roberta remarked as her marble eye shined. "Almost too fruitful. Especially for the boy." She playfully remarked.

The trio stiffened, knowing she saw through them. It was too simple to notice.

On a typical run on the first layer, you kill around 120 G-rank monsters at most, meaning that, on a 3-man party, they would average 40 kills each. However, Sierra's Civilized Monster class level suddenly rose from 5 to 12, Cornelia's racial level from 16 to 18, and Tenta's from 10 to 14. From a simple calculation, Roberta, who could see their levels, noticed that their experience was double the expected value.

While the trio didn't know how to answer, Roberta chuckled, "Kid, you are not the only one with unique skills like that. That crazy spider also had something similar, and I hold little to no interest in it. So, at least with me, you should relax. Though I would refrain from revealing it outside."

"... Thank you for your understanding," Tenta replied.

"No problem. In any case, there are several issues you three should address." Roberta said. "First, I see you are pretty bruised and tired. I guess you needed to babysit the two beside you?"

"..." Cornelia and Sierra averted their eyes, feeling guilty. Tenta was essentially carrying them through the dungeon and even helping them get kills. Tenta could likely run the dungeon solo.

"There isn't much of a choice. Cornelia has limited mana and is a spellcaster, and Sierra is a bat." Tenta shook his head. "You can't expect me to make Sierra hold the front, right?"

"No worries... I'll let you have a new companion," Roberta smiled.

"... Are you going to pseudo-reincarnate someone else again?" Tenta guessed.

"Hehehe..." Roberta cackled but didn't answer.

The trio got chills, and Tenta decided to change the subject. "What are the other issues?"

"Right... The second issue is with Cornelia here." Roberta turned to Cornelia. "You must be vexed about being useless in the dungeon, right?"

"Yes, Master..." Cornelia looked down.

"Don't be sad, girly. It is normal. It would be delusional to expect a spellcaster to become a warrior. But I suggest you switch to a warrior class, even if only up to the intermediate level. It would take some of Tenta's burden off in the first layers and save you some mana." Roberta suggested.

"Thank you for the advice, Master." Cornelia nodded.

"By the way, are there ways to increase talent outside evolving? I heard that nobles can give their kids magical talent." Tenta said.

"There are ways. Certain elixirs and medicinal baths have such effects, and I can teach them to you. The three of you can later use them to increase your talent... But the materials are up to you to get from the dungeon." Roberta said. "Of course, with what you can get on the first fifty layers, don't expect you can get the talent of an archmage. The increase in talent is limited."

"Well, I appreciate you can teach it to us," Tenta replied.

"No problem. You must also wonder what Aura and Mental Energy are, right?" Roberta asked. "You saw those two talent descriptions, right?"

"Yes." Tenta nodded. "Can you teach me?"

"I dabbled in all sorts of things. Although they are not my forte, I should be able to teach you a thing or two." Roberta smirked. "We will start tomorrow morning."

"Thank you." Tenta's face tentacles rose in gratitude.

"And that leaves the final issue..." The hag's old face turned strange. "How are you feeling, boy?"

"Hah?" Tenta tilted his head in askance. "Tired, I guess?"

"Besides that. Feeling a little..." Roberta narrowed her eyes, "Frisky?"

"Frisky?" Tenta had a strange look. "What do you mean by frisky?"

"I mean... Raunchy, horny, can't think about anything other than sex..." Roberta casually listed.

"PFFT!!!" The bat spat blood on the table.¹LOL

"Manners, girl!" Roberta frowned and lightly moved her hand, making the blood disappear.

"..." Cornelia blushed and lowered her head.

"You are referring to my race traits, hah?" Tenta guessed, not too surprised.

He did start feeling urges. They were not too strong yet, but they were steadily growing.

"Correct. You have sex addiction as a racial trait and a weakness to seduction. The all-male Tentacle Monster family suffers from this trait, which leads them to their rape-friendly nature... But your benevolent Consentacle race hates rape. This isn't necessarily a good thing since you will, in the next few days, feel discomfort and then weakness if you don't find release, and you will find your standard in women lowering by the day. You might even beg little old me after enough time, hehehe..." The crone evilly chuckled.

Tenta's tentacles stood on end and mentally screamed. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Cornelia and Sierra gave Tenta a weird look.

"But luckily... You have a pretty female master that can help you. Right?" Roberta looked at Cornelia and smirked.

Cornelia blushed and looked down in embarrassment but didn't deny it.

"E-Eh?" Tenta looked toward Cornelia and widened his eyes in amazement. "That look... She is... Willing?"

Badump*

His heart skipped a beat, staring at Cornelia in shock.

"Surprised, boy?" Roberta smirked. "The girl had you with her for a month. She knew from the day she summoned you she would likely need to handle your sexual urges and was mentally prepared for it. It is part of the package of contracting a familiar. Besides... You underestimate yourself and your emotional connection with her as her familiar."

Sierra awkwardly continued drinking her blood drink while Tenta looked at Cornelia, who played with her fingers, her blush deepening.

While the trio was distracted, the witch's marble eye lightly twinkled. "Just when I was looking for one... Hehehe..." The hag thought

She sensed a dying prayer calling her name. The marble eye showed a bloody girl with an arrow in her back, dying, with goblins surrounding her. And yet, even with the shadow of death about to claim her, she somehow radiated a golden aura of luck, intertwining with the shadow of death.

"Hehehe... Interesting..." The hag narrowed her remaining murky eye, her interest piquing as her shadow slowly wriggled under her and moved. The trio didn't notice as the shadow left the hut and into the night...

.

.

.

Moments before...

Alex galloped for miles, starlight and glowing plants lighting her path, three pursuers hot on her tail, shooting one bolt after another, all missing.

"STOP RUNNING, GIRL!" The bandits roared, forgetting their horses were getting tired.

The horses they rode had more stamina than regular horses, but they could only gallop up to five miles before stopping, which was already impressive.

Of course, Alex didn't stop. She wasn't a fool. The moment she stopped, she was dead. So she did the only thing she could... Continue running. As for shooting back? She didn't have the training to do that. She was just an ordinary girl galloping in a forest. It was already good she didn't fall over.

But while galloping, unaware that she rode through the apex predator territories while miraculously avoiding them, she finally hit a dead end...

"V-Village? Here?! No... It is a...!" Alex widened her eyes in horror.

She just ran into a large-scale goblin tribe. But before she could steer her horse to change direction...

Thud*

"A-Ah..." She felt a hotness on her back, her strength disappearing as she slowly fell from her horse.

Thump*

"We finally got the bitch!" The bandit who shot her exclaimed.

"Yeah. Too bad she is dead. Fucking making us chase her all the way here." Another bandit complained.

"Let's take the horse back." The third bandit suggested.

"Right..." The first bandit nodded, but then he noticed the goblin tribe in front, with walls and all. "Oh... Shit... Guys, run!" 

He said, wanting to turn his horse to gallop away, but the horse didn't budge. It refused to move due to being too tired.

"You stupid horse! Go!" The second bandit kicked the horse, but...

Neigh*

The horse neighed and flung him off of it.

"Oof..." The bandit groaned, bruised from the fall.

"It's no use... We are already surrounded." The third bandit bitterly said as he looked around.

He saw goblins riding on Worgs, wolf-like ferocious creatures. They were Goblin Cavalry, something only a large tribe could have. The three bandits were dead meat.

Ironically, the goblins didn't kill the three bandits... They captured them using nets and clubs. As for why?

"Strong men! Good tribute for chieftess! Make strong warriors!" The goblins laughed.

Goblins were not patriarchal... But matriarchal. Although rarer, they occasionally caught strong-looking males to serve Stallions for their dominant females, a more stable source of warriors than a fragile human female.

"NOOO!!!!" The bruised bandits cried as they were dragged into the goblin tribe.

As for Alex...

"Cough*..." She was coughing blood, her lung punctured, and dying.

"Female no good." One of the goblins grimaced.

"Men kill kill her." Another goblin pointed at the three men with hate, having lost a breeding stock.

"Make soup?" A third goblin suggested.

"Soup!" The first two goblins' eyes lit up. Having soup from a human female wasn't a bad idea.

And they also caught four horses, which was good food for their Worgs.

Alex, dying on the ground, remembered a tale her parents told her, the main reason the villages respected the forest.

[It is said an ancient witch lives in this forest, and whoever defiles the forest earns her wrath. But it is said she has a soft spot for young girls. If you seek her but don't need her, you will never find her... But in your hour of greatest need, give her a prayer, and she might find you... Her name is...]

"Roberta the Black..." Alex prayed with her dying breath, her vision slowly blurring from lack of oxygen. "I give you my prayer... I haven't seen enough of this world... So much to see. So much to learn, So much to create... Please, help me..."

"You seek my help?" An old voice sounded as a shapeless shadow emerged from the ground, startling everyone present except the dying Alex.

"Vizzoxaz... Vizzoxaz!" One of the goblins called, shaking.

"Vizzoxaz! Vizzoxaz!" The other goblins trembled, one by one prostrating to the shadow.

Vizzoxaz. That was the name the goblins gave the witch, the defacto ruler and guardian deity of the forest. They lived under her wing for centuries and listened to her commands. They didn't attack peaceful and helpful villages like Runswick because they were ordered not to. Of course, those who strayed too far into the forest were fair game.

"I... Cough*... Seek..." Alex muttered, her vitality fading with each dying breath.

"I can help you... But how I do so might not be to your liking, and I will have a task for you. Are you fine with that?" The old voice asked.

"Anything... Cough* Cough*..." Alex said her final words and lost consciousness.

Roberta knew Alex only had minutes left until her brain died, so she saved her the agony and directly extracted her soul.

The unconscious and naked spirit of Alex flew out of her dying vessel without resistance, floating in front of the shadow. Just as Roberta was about to absorb the soul into her shadow, she suddenly noticed something in the goblin tribe.

"Oh?" Roberta uttered, going inside unimpeded by the prostrating goblins, the spirit following her.

"Vizzoxaz..." The goblin chieftess, an ugly hobgoblin, knelt in front of Roberta.

However, Roberta ignored it as she silently floated inside one of the huts. Inside, she saw a sick and emaciated female goblin child runt close to her death. What interested her was that the child was... not ugly. But she had an incredible bad luck, equally proportionate to Alex's spirit.

"Who is she?" Roberta asked.

"Vizzoxaz. She is runt. Weak. Dying. Worthless child." The chieftess said.

She was one of her daughters, but the child was born a weakling. Although smarter than her siblings, her physical aptitude was poor, prone to sickness, and now dying. In the eyes of the chieftess, although it was a pity the child would die, a weakling was still worthless, regardless of how intelligent it was.

"Atavism, that explains the bad luck and weak body. But her soul has a 100% compatibility..." The shadow chuckled. "No wonder... What wild luck. The goddess of luck must be shining on you." She muttered, glancing at the floating spirit, radiating an aura of blinding luck that was attracted to the goblin's bad luck as if seeking to neutralize it.

She then looked at the dying goblin child. "Child... Would you like to live?"

The female goblin child opened her eyes, breathing weak breaths. "Want... Live..."

"I can help you... But you will need to merge with someone else. Is that fine?" Roberta asked.

"Yes... Want... Live..." The child muttered, not knowing the implication of her words.

"Very well. The deal is sealed." The witch muttered as she cast a powerful spell, even more complicated than Pseudo Reincarnation.

"Soul Merge." Roberta cast her spell, magic circles appearing in the air. Alex's soul was slowly absorbed into the dying goblin child's body.

Inside the child's body, two souls with perfect compatibility slowly merged, memories, ambitions, talent, and consciousness merging into one. Alex's good luck and the runt's bad luck canceled each other, becoming a neutral blend. At the same time, minor features began to change in the child, such as gaining freckles and her face more resembling that of Alex. Her body also slowly regained its vitality.

Soul Merge. It was one of the highest-tier reincarnation magic with impossibly high requirements. You needed 100% soul compatibility to be successful. Once merged, the two parties could retain their full talent, intelligence, and memories and even have a more powerful soul. The downside was that it could lead to identity disorder... But this child was barely a few months old. Even if goblins matured dozens of times faster than humans, it was young. They would share the same body, but Alex would be the dominant ego, and she would inherit some of the child's wishes.

"I will be taking this child..." Roberta said to the chieftess. "But I will give compensation." She added, an axe falling to the ground, suitable for the chieftess. It was an enchanted axe she got from the 47th floor of the dungeon. It was worthless junk to her but a priceless treasure to the chieftess.

"Thank you, Vizzoxaz!" The chieftess bowed in gratitude.

She didn't care what happened to a dying runt. If Vizzoxaz wanted her, she could have her. It was already good she got such a good deal.

Roberta's shadow nodded, taking the child into her shadow. She then silently floated back to Alex's corpse, where the goblins still knelt in reverence and fear. She ignored Alex's corpse and instead took her belongings. The corpse belonged to the goblins, as nature deemed it, but she could at least safely keep the items for Alex later.

The goblins didn't dare object, but one of the three bandits yelled in desperation. "Hey! Please! Help us!"

Roberta glanced at them in disdain before letting out an evil cackle. "Hehehe... You get what you deserve."

And then the shadow vanished, leaving the three bandits to their fate.