Chapter 7

The surveillance spider made it to the other side and moved quickly into hiding. The room on the other side was definitely not what I expected. Instead of a room, I was faced with a little jungle. There were small trees in all directions creating a light leafy canopy. I had been to a few forest dungeons when I was a human. They were mostly just hot and annoying but the terrain posed little to no threat. The only thing we needed to worry about was monsters hiding behind trees or in the leaves.

From the eyes of the surveillance spider, I could see about 8 goblins guarding the entrance to the portal. 6 were in close range, each one holding a hammer, and two further away with crude bows in hand. I relayed the information to the waiting army I had to my back before advancing through the portal.

The plan was easy, I was the first to enter the forest and met the 6 goblins head-on. I was faster and larger than all of them. The warm humid air was soon filled with the scent of blood as I jammed the hobgoblins spear into the closest goblin. The fast ambush visibly jarred the goblins as they scrambled back trying to put some distance between us. The spear was long enough to get one more as it backed away. As I pulled the spear from the second goblin the vortex behind me flexed as the trap and poison spiders came through. Both immediately shot to the sides and dove into the trees that surrounded the portal. Their jobs were to take out the ones with arrows, who reacted to my appearance and fired at me. One arrow was not even close to reaching me landing over 15 feet away but the other was true and I needed to deflect it with my shield.

I slid my body to the left pushing the spear at the closest goblin who had started to form a half circle around me. Seeing an opening a goblin from the far side of the portal jumped forward aiming for my open side. As it crossed in front of the portal the mace end of a tank came through in a downward swing causing a horrific crunching sound as it smashed the little goblin.

Tanks 1 and 2 filed through in succession smashing the dead goblin under their tree trunk-sided legs. The much larger and slower targets were much better for the archers to hit and they sent arrows their way. Both were more accurate than the ones fired at me but bounced off the bone armor of the tanks. As both goblins began to reload they were met by a swift attack from the two spiders from earlier. They died in moments without so much as a sound. With only 4 goblins left and enemies in front of and behind them, they didn't last long.

"Good work guys. Now let's go see the chief." The spiders all clicked and hissed in anticipation as we made our way through the small forest. The quick surveillance spider was sent ahead and alerted us of the 3 goblins that patrolled the area. All 3 of them were mercilessly killed without a sound. We walked in silence for about 10 minutes before we came to the small clearing that the surveillance spider had marked as their main base.

The small clearing was void of any plants with makeshift tents barely held up by branches. There was an empty fire pit in the center of the clearing and a wooden throne directly across from it. I clicked my tongue in annoyance as the surveillance spider showed me the hideous face of a red cap guarded by tree hobgoblins at the throne. While the hobgoblins looked like larger, more muscular goblins, the red cap was different. Not only were they slimmer and more agile, but they also looked as if they were bred for fighting. Instead of dropping ears, they had tall pointed ears that stuck up and moved from side to side like a cat listening for its next meal. They also had larger eyes compared to the small pinpoints of a normal goblin. On top of all of that, they were faster and stronger than both goblins and hobs.

I looked at my party, the only ones that could land a quicker attack would be the trap and poison, but they were weak on defense and could easily die if hit by any of them. And the tanks were just far too slow to make anything of a surprise attack work.

After a few minutes of deliberation and a short planning session, I came up with a plan. I stood up and raised the spear in a throwing stance. This one shot could make or break the plan. I took a deep breath and stepped into the clearing throwing the spear with all my might. My aim was true as the spear sailed across the clearing and straight through the chest of a hobgoblin. It crumpled to the ground as the red cap jumped to its feet. His reaction time was flawless and made me glad I chose to take out a hobgoblin over the possibility the cap would react faster than my spear.

The redcap screamed and launched forward at me with the hobgoblins following slower behind. The redcap reached me before the others had even gotten to the fire pit and we clashed. The redcap had a short hammer made of wood and stone but the force behind its strike cracked my shield. I deflected the hit and drew my own hammer swinging at it. With incredible reaction speed, he dodged and skipped to the side. I smiled as the blade of a tank came out of the woods where I had placed it hiding behind a tree. It sliced at the redcap's neck. The red cap managed to avoid a fatal blow but took some damage as the blade sliced across its shoulder opening up a deep wound. It winced in pain and screeched at the hobgoblins for backup. The green shade of its skin got a little lighter as he looked back to see the two hobgoblins falling to the ground dead. I had sent both the quick spiders off to the side with instructions to ambush the charging hobs. Everything was going according to plan. As both tanks stepped into the clearing and the trap and poison spiders finished their job, the redcap was the only remaining goblin in this dungeon. The tanks and I surrounded the redcap in a triangle shape and the two others climbed into the backs of the tanks and prepared to attack. With everyone in position, we began our attack.

I was faster than the tanks and lunged forward leading with the shield. The redcap reacted to my advance and struck my shield with its hammer sending a jolt through my arm. I didn't back down as the tanks moved in closer. Poison squirted at the redcap causing it to jump to the side. It avoided the majority of the attack besides a few drops that landed on its arm. However, it had to lunge to the left directly at a tank that swung its mace in an attack. The redcap managed to block the downward swing of the mace arm from the tank but was left wide open for a lower attack by the trap spider. Its sharp legs slicked into the red's ribcage, opening up a massive wound. The goblin recoiled and jumped back where I was waiting for it, hammer raised. As the recap tried to regain its footing I brought the end of the hammer down hard on its red-stained skull and caved it in.

As the redcap's body sank to the floor the entire dungeon began to shake. This was natural for the dungeons once the master was defeated, and it was an indication that the dungeon was going to collapse soon. I cursed and ordered the spiders to all retreat through the portal immediately. We moved as fast as the tanks could manage and made it to the other side in half the time it took for us to get there. The tanks were definitely out of breath as we broke through the portal to the other side. I was the last through and looked around concerned, noticing my own dungeon shaking.

"What's going on?" I yelled at the voice.

"Enemy dungeon is collapsing. Commencing absorption of the enemy dungeon. Integration started." The rumbling got louder and more violent. Parts of the cave walls shook, making bits of stone fall to the floor. I looked back to see the portal flexing and sputtering before vanishing. As the portal vanished, so did the shaking. "Integration of the goblin dungeon is complete."

"Okay, so what now?" I asked. In response, I closed my eyes to see the map. Although it was a little larger than before. And to the farthest side, there was a section that wasn't just black, instead, it was bright green. "What is that area?"

"With the integration, a small portion of the goblin dungeon's original form stayed. The current area is a small forested selection of the dungeon." I did remember that sometimes when we would enter a dungeon there would occasionally be something out of the ordinary, like a section of cave in a marsh dungeon, or a saltwater lake in a cave.

"Awesome. Did anything else change?"

"Current dungeon expanded by ⅛ its size. From absorption, funds have been added to the dungeon."

"Funds? Like crystals, correct?"

"Correct, Currently you have enough funds to summon up to 4 spiders. Dungeon rank has also increased from a bottom tier F rank dungeon to a mid-ranked lower half dungeon."

"Did the rank-up do anything for me?"

"No" I brushed off the voice and looked at my warriors. They were tired but happy. I felt excitement and pride from each of them.

"Congratulations guys. You all did great." I received aggressive chattering and warm feelings from all of them as we made our way to the throne room.

"And with that, we finished our first dungeon merge," I said happily as I sat down on the throne.